Legacy of the Ancients
by Sci-Fi Raptor
Summary: A twisted Doctor...a mysterious organoid...and poor Bit is in the middle of it all. This is one fic you must read if you want excitement, romance, and mystery.
1. Default Chapter

**Legacy of the Ancients**

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids… (pout, pout, pout…) But everything else is, I guess.

By: Sci-Fi-Raptor

In the beginning, there was one…

50 years after the last Republican-Imperial war, in a small, mild mannered colony near an Ancient's "temple" (it was really a base, but people respected the Ancients so much, they thought the title of temple was more fitting) a small child was born to a pair of prominent archeologists. His parents gave him the name Rio, since it meant River, and he pissed on his dad the first time his dad held him. As he grew up, he grew interested in his parents work, and studied it at an early age (on the account of him being by himself, since there were very few people, none of them married or with children), and when he became a man, he decided to follow in his parent's footsteps.

He turned out to transcend his parent's talents, since he acquired both of theirs'. When his parents died, it hit hard since they were his only close friends and family. He was very isolated when he grew up, something his parents regretted a lot. But he believed that if he accomplished something worthwhile in his life, his parents work would not be in vain, and he was sure he'd be content for the rest of his life.

This new aspiration soon became an obsession that started to control and change him; it had brought him to the brink of madness. But one day, while he was talking to himself, he pointed out something to himself that he had never seen before. On it was the directions to some Ancient's technology that was tucked away at the most secret crevices of the "temple", places he knew he would never find in his entire lifetime. He knew that if he could excavate the technology, he would have definitely accomplished something to be proud of. He tried excavating the technology himself, but his actions were futile; he was not enough by himself, so he had to hire a team, but to do that, he needed a sponsor.

Rejection after rejection took its toll on Jani, and the anxiety of being able to grasp his dream made him take a sponsorship from the Back Draft Organization out of desperation. But it did not matter; all he cared about at that moment was making a name of himself, unaware of the possible aftermath…

After a few years of searching the temple for technology, Jani finally found something. His team went into a room with two containers. One was completely broken, while the other had a small crack. He inspected the first container which said it contained "bots". He looked into the other container, and found an odd looking organoid, and it was a special organiod. He read the information on the container that told him that the organoid's name was Z. It also told him something that made him very happy. It was one of the original organiods the Ancients made! 

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	2. Ancient Power, Unleashed…

** Legacy of the Ancients**

**Chapter One: Ancient Power, Unleashed…**

By: Sci-Fi-Raptor

Disclaimer: I Don't own Zoids, just Jani and Z. 

In a secret base in an endless desert, an Ancient force is being meddled with: Doctor Rio Jani was about to find out what the fruits of his discovery were…

"Sir, the system is ready to reboot the organoid, and we are waiting for your approval to start."

"Alright" said Jani, with visible anxiety in his voice. "This is it people, this is the moment we have all been waiting for. Commence the reincarnation of the organoid Z"

"Yes, sir. Activating reincarnation system"

Jani watched his computer screen intently as the system began to do its magic.

"Soon" thought Jani. "Soon"

011100111…..

Initializing system…please wait…System Online…

Powering organoid…please wait…Power up successful…

Initializing serzos…please wait…Servo initialization successful…

Initializing tertiary circuitry…please wait…Tertiary circuitry initialization successful…

Installing tertiary circuitry…please wait…Installation successful…

Initializing secondary circuitry…please wait…Initialization successful…

Installing secondary circuitry…please wait… 

The process had taken five hours, and by this time Jani had had enough of the techno-babble, and decided to take the best action to make things speed up. Jani got up and told his idea to his team firmly. 

"I have decided that this initialization phase is taking too long, so I have decided to do something that will speed it up for me, so pay careful attention." 

His team was interested in his idea, since they too were losing the anxiety and growing bored.

"The way for things to speed up for me is…"

His team looked at him intently to find out the answer, leaning at the edge of their seats.

"I'm going to sleep!"

His whole team fell face down into the floor.

"Wake me up when we are nearing the final phase."

All those who had recovered from the fall now had big drops of sweat coming out of their heads as the Jani left the room in a nonchalant manner. 

Jani arrived at his quarters, but decided to look over his notes on the organoid and all other information he had found in the temple, to be prepared for the day's expected awakening. He skimmed over most of his notes, but since they were already committed to his memory by now, he went to the manuscripts that he gathered at the temple that he hadn't translated yet.

Most of the writing was about fantastic inventions that were being made in preparation for the "Exodus", which he was assuming was when the Ancients disappeared from their planet altogether, leaving only a few things that they decided was too crude to bring with them.

The one invention that struck him as most impressive was their nano-technology. Since it was too hard to make spaceships in gravity, and too slow in space, they designed nano-bots that could function as one entity. They also designed them like bacterial colonies, which is what they called each of the entities, a "colony" of nano-bots. 

"But what did this have to do with their intergalactic ships?" Thought Jani. The rest of the manuscript answered that question, and more…

Like bacterial colonies, the nano-colonies could grow, repair itself, and "reproduce", once the colony became a full fledged starship. Their "babies" where about the size of a human and would take about ten years to become a starship. The only things that they required to do this were a few common resources, which the bots could convert into more complex materials, depending on whatever their needs were.

The colonies where also like organoids, in that they could learn, adapt, and devise strategies to solve problems they might encounter. They were like organoids in every respect except they were far more advanced, and could change their shape at will. Like organoids, they had their own personalities, and could repair and upgrade other Zoids. The colonies however could repair and upgrade anything mechanical. Another difference in that skill was that a colony could merge with another machine. And they did not actually merge with it, but converted its atoms into more bots, but retained the shape and function of the machine, until it completely converted it. It was up to the Ancient if it should stay as it was, or do something else.

There was more information on the manuscript, but he had been at it for an hour now, and his sleepiness was getting the best of him. He wrote down all the information he had just learned into his notebook and went toward his bed. 

As he was tucking himself in, he heard a noise that he definitely did not want to hear while the work on Z was going on, but the alarm's noises and lights were too annoying to be ignored.

Quickly, he dashed off to his command center, assuming the grunts would handle the attack. He opened the door and let out a shriek that could be heard over the alarms. He found everyone in his team dead. He heard someone cry for help, and found it to be one of the grunts that was guarding his team. He said the organoid was cursed, and that somehow, it made the secret machine gun in the room fire at the team. He was last to be shot at, but he destroyed the gun before it killed him. He told Jani to get out while he could, and then died.

Jani knew that Ancients were very technologically advanced, so he knew that it wasn't a curse, but a defense mechanism. He checked the computer for the status of events as they happened. It read:

011100111…..

Initializing system…please wait…System Online…

Powering organoid…please wait…Power up successful…

Initializing serzos…please wait…Servo initialization successful…

Initializing tertiary circuitry…please wait…Tertiary circuitry initialization successful…

Installing tertiary circuitry…please wait…Installation successful…

Initializing secondary circuitry…please wait…Initialization successful…

Installing secondary circuitry…please wait…Installation successful…

Warning! Warning! Organiod system has blocked all invasive attempts!

Warning! Warning! Organiod system is downloading all databases available!

Warning! Warning! Organoid system has uploaded an unknown agent!

Warning! Warning! Virus detected! Virus is taking over all syste…

…………………………………………….m…Intruder system taken over. Objective one complete.

Destroying all enemies in range of escape route…Processing…

At this time the doctor realized what was going on. Z had taken over the base and was probably destroying the base defense Zoids with the automatic defenses. Jani ran to the arms storage to get an EMP gun, and took some men with him. When he got back, he and five other men were equipped with EMP guns to disable Z. Jani looked quickly at the status screen to see if it was about to make a run for it. It said:

Processing…Objective two complete.

All of a sudden, the organoid ripped free of all its restraints and wires and started running out the exit. 

"What are you guys just standing there for? Shoot the damn bitch!"

Jani's new team started barraging the organiod with 6 EMP shots. Z dodged the grunts' shots, but Jani's accuracy prevailed. But to his horror, Z melted; at least it looked like that. 

All this overwhelmed Jani, and he fell on his knees and started weeping. His whole life's work had just gone down the drain. And to top it off, his whole team was dead. They were the only people he cared about, especially Tracy. He had grown quite fond of her, and was going to ask her out the day they found the damn organoid, but didn't because of how much of his time the discovery took when he found it. He even thought that she started to like him too, not just as a colleague though, since she actually started socializing, he thought flirting, a few days before they found Z. 

He told the men to recover the remains of Z, but stopped when they noticed something very disturbing: the puddle Z's remains started glowing, and started taking the shape of a small tank (they didn't know what it was, but could tell it was dangerous). That's when it all hit him. He wasn't looking at an organoid, but a baby nano-tech! It made sense because he figured that when he shot it with his EMP, all the robots were disabled, and they all collapsed, but it looked like they melted since they were so small. He also figured that it was a "merged" organoid, since he remembered that when he found the containers, he found one marked "bots" (the nano- part was broken off), and the other marked "Z". He figured that since both containers were broken, the nano-bots probably merged with the organoid when they had the chance, and now he was seeing the fruit of their toils.

"Idiots, don't just stand there, take it out again!!!"

Jani's team attacked, but they were too slow for it. It left them in the dust as it rounded a corner. They could hear gasps and yelps of people's surprise when they saw the incredibly fast, but unfamiliar machine. Jani heard a loud explosion, and saw sunlight coming out of a corridor. Jani's team tried to catch up, but it was already gone. 

He listened to the security channels and heard that the few remaining Zoids were sent to intercept it. He had seen what that monster could do on its own. He did not want to be around when the beast took over a Zoid. He knew that for some reason, Z wanted to kill everyone here, so he figured it was a matter of time until he would take over a Zoid, destroy those that were following it, and ultimately destroy the base. 

Out in the desert, if there was anyone to watch, a small black aircraft was zooming past the landscape, just mere inches off the ground. It was traveling mind-bogging speed, trailing a cloud of dust that went many miles high, and was delayed by about 1 second. If there was a person watching it, he would figure it was a missile or something. But if he took a close look at it, he would see an aircraft of alien design, at least for the past hundreds of years. It was shaped like the cross of a trapezoid and a wedge. From the top, it looked like a trapezoid that was somewhat curved in the front. From the side, it looked like a wedge, but it was shaped more like a parabola. The fuselage took up the area of the rectangle in the middle of the trapezoid. The wings consisted of the triangles of the trapezoid. The fuselage thinned out in a curve like manner to be as thin as the wings. In the middle of the wings, there was a booster that looked more like a missile. There was a triangle to the top and bottom of it. The amazing thing about the design was that it cut through air so well, you could not tell it was making noise unless you were 50 meters away. The booster's noise was non-existent.

But who could possibly be flying something that was not a Zoid? Especially one of alien (if not Ancient) design? Z of course! (Reader slams head into ground, with huge sweat drop when he recovers…) Z was a smart entity. It was made to last, and it was made to survive. When it woke up, it knew immediately that the place it was in was hostile, so it went into combat mode and it was going to see that they all died before they could lay a finger on it. 

Z wasn't aimlessly flying away either, on the contrary it was just getting the "big guns". When it woke up, it detected a lot of things, including a Liger 0 that was close by. It was capable of handling a Zoid ten times as large as an Ultra Saurus, and still radically increase its power. What could it NOT do in a puny Liger 0? It decided that he would take it over and annihilate its captors… 

Jani was quickly walking toward his research truck. He knew he would never be able to forgive himself for what he was about to do, but there were too many witnesses to what was happening, and he needed to get rid of them, or lose access to Z. He decided to take all his research in to his truck and leave the base without telling them why. Once they were all dead, he would tell the Black Draft Organization that his team started initiating the organoid before he got there, and when he reached the base, he found it destroyed. So he went to his Hummer and got as far away as he could. Half an hour later, he heard a few mini explosions, and a huge explosion not too long after that. He could feel heat and some of the aftershock, but he could not even see the blast. He knew that he was now safe and able to continue his work… 

HAHAHA!!! Such EVIL and ruthless people I have made. But don't judge TOO quick, there's more where that came from, and it came from a place that science will never understand…

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	3. Z’s Revenge…

** Legacy of the Ancients**

**Chapter Two: Z's Revenge…**

By: Sci-Fi-Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids. But I wish I owned A Zoid! 

It has been three days since the Blitz team won the Royal tournament. Currently, they are en-route to a hot springs resort to take their well-deserved vacation…

"BIT! Give me back my cookie!"

"What cookie?" said Bit right after he gobbled it up.

"You are SOO dead Bit Cloud!" said Leena as she charged after Bit, ready to pummel him into the wall.

As she was about to crash into Bit, Bit sidestepped, and Leena hit the wall head on. Bit started walking away slowly, but started running as fast when he heard Leena recover. When she got up, she left out a cry of rage that could be heard outside the Hover Cargo.

"BBBIIIIIITTTTTTTTT!!!! When I get my hands of you, your gonna be SOO dead!"

This got Bit really scared, so he headed straight for the Liger 0, sprinting the whole way. But Leena knew that he would do so, since when she got really mad, like now, Bit would run to the Liger and hail tail.

When Leena got to the hangar, it was too late; Bit was already exiting the hanger with his liger, and got his Liger to run as fast as it could, running out to the seemingly endless desert. 

Normally, Leena would go to her Gun Sniper, and chase Bit, but her rage was clouding her mind, and she started chasing the Liger. But she did something very disturbing; she caught up to and kept pace with the Liger. She even managed to rave on and on about the explicit things she would do to him when she got her hands on him. Unfortunately for her, her adrenaline could no longer support her rage anymore, and Bit decided to turn on his ion boosters. She gave a final threat and concluded with, "Come and fight me like a man, you coward!" and gave up. She then turned back to go to the Hover Cargo fuming over what she would do to Bit when he came back. 

Bit sat in his cockpit, nervously waiting for the entrance door to open. When it did, he saw Leena coming in. He decided not to taunt her, but to hail tail while he could; he made the Liger go to its fastest running speed. He was waiting a few seconds to be hit by her Gun Sniper, but was surprised that nothing was happening. He looked around his screens, and gave a surprised/scared yelp to what he saw.

What he saw was very, very scary, Leena running parallel to him! And he could kind of hear the obscene things that she was spewing that she would do to him. Bit's heart jumped a micro second later, and he activated his ion boosters, sure that Leena would never catch up. And he was right about that; he looked at his rear-view screen to find Leena shrinking in the distance. Bit started relaxing, sure that he wouldn't have any more trouble for the rest of the day.

"Well, Liger. I guess we can have this as our daily run for the day."

Liger growled in agreement, and started increasing power to its boosters, making it go even faster. Bit and Liger "ran" for about an hour and a half. When they reached a part of the desert that was full of dunes, Bit thought that the run had lasted long enough (and that Leena would have a cool head when he would get back). Bit was about to head back, when all of a sudden, something hit him really hard. When he recovered from the surprise attack, he looked up to see a large group of heavy, heavily armed Back Draft pilots. 

The entity known as "Z" finally reached the Liger. Before entering the Liger, it thoroughly scanned it to find a place to accommodate itself. The best place it could find was inside its short-range guns. There was no risk whatsoever from being there, since the gun didn't emit enough energy to move a single bot. It did not emit anywhere close to the amount of energy needed to damage any of the bots either. But "Z" determined that he could improve the devastation of the gun with very quick and minor adjustments, or use the energy to grow, and eventually convert the whole Zoid into an extension of the colony.

"Z" entered the Liger and determined what immediate modifications it could do to the Liger to increase its offensive and defensive powers. It also computed which of his attacks would be compatible with the Liger's hardware. It determined that it could increase the Liger's by 200% by removing all friction in its legs that slowed it down. It also determined that that the short-range guns and ion-boosters could be exponentially more devastating/faster with very minor changes. And the best of its attacks that could be used without modification of the Liger was its "Offensive Shield", which wasn't an attack, but the mechanism that the attack came from. It was about to implement its plans, but some part of the Liger wouldn't let it make the changes without the pilot's consent. So "Z" requested the pilot to activate "Hybrid Mode". 

"Pilot of Liger 0, immediately give up your Zoid or prepare to be seriously hurt." Said the pilot of a War Shark.

"No way, you damn Back Draft scum! I've never lost Liger to you, and I never will" Bit loudly responded.

Bit was about to high tail it out of there, until he saw the words "Hybrid Mode" flashing on his screen. Bit thought that Liger knew himself best, so he agreed. Unknown to him, it was really "Z" telling him to do this, but it probably knew more about the Liger than the Liger knew about itself. Bit activated Hybrid Mode, and was shocked to see light coming out of all the openings in his Liger. Then he felt the great increase in speed, and turned it down a little, since he was not used to being able to go that fast without boosters. Then he noticed his tactics screen showed that his boosters', short-range guns' and running speed capacities dramatically increased. 

Then another item flashed on his screen, "Offensive Shield". He decided to go with Liger's judgment (actually the judgment of the entity known as Z, since when Bit consented to Hybrid Mode, "Z" took over the Liger). He expected some kind of charge up attack, like the Strike Laser Claw attack, but what happened completely surprised him. A shield formed around his Liger (like a Shield Liger) that was a crimson red. Also his cockpit charged into Liger 0 Panzer mode. His screens were locked on to all the enemy pilots, and the screen flashed "Galactic Fury". Bit thought that it must have been some kind of attack if Liger wanted to use the word Galactic in it.

Bit activated the attack, and the Liger started to run away from the Back Draft Zoids. When it was about 1 kilometer away, it started running toward them, ion-boosters at their max speeds.

"Galactic FURY!!!" exclaimed Bit when he was in range of the Back Draft Zoids. When he was close enough, he saw some kind of energy being expelled from the shield; they looked like the beams from charged particle cannons. 

"AAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" the Back Draft pilots said as the were being vaporized one by one. 

"Holy Shit Liger! Since when could you do that shit!" exclaimed Bit as the Liger gave a loud roar of victory. Then it started to move from the direction that the Back Draft pilots came from. 

"What the hell are you doing Liger! They came from there, which means there will be more of them there!!!!!!!!!! Common Liger, go to the Hover Cargo, so we can get out of this alive!"

The Liger growled in defiance, and continued to go toward the source of the Back Draft pilots, now using his ion-boosters with his offensive shield down. 

"Commander, intel reports that all our ground units have been destroyed, and something from their vicinity is coming towards us at extraordinary speeds."

"Obviously the work of Z. That's it, we don't stand a chance. Evacuate the base."

whine like an alarm "Warning, this is not a drill. Evacuate the base in an orderly fashion. This is not a drill" whine like an alarm

"Sir, the unidentified Zoid is 10 seconds away from us! I don't think we can make it."

"Damn it. Why wasn't Jani on this one? Wait, where is Jani."

"Our garage said that he check out a vehicle not too long ago…"

"That bastard! He knew this was gonna happen, and he left us here to die. That bi….". The commander's words were cut short by an immense emission of energy that came from a four legged white Zoid… 

"What was that all about Liger?"

The Liger growled in reply in what would be taken as a shrug if it were human. The Liger had no idea what he was talking about, since it was off-line when Z took it over. Z gave the organoid its body back after it was satisfied by the damage it caused.

"Well, that's definitely a side of you that I've never seen before, Liger…" said Bit somewhat confused with the recent actions of his Liger. Not only did it just take out an army and a base, the Liger 0 didn't respond to his order, or at least tell him why he was doing what he did.

The Liger was just as confused as Bit was, since it had no recollection of what just happened. All it remembered was getting hit, and going into "Hybrid Mode", and ending up with a burning base in front of it. It wasn't sure about what to do, but it was sure that its run for the day was over; it started going back to the Hover Cargo. 

What does Z have in store for Bit and the Blitz team? And what of our evil doctor Jani?

Sorry if these first chapters are short. Just had to get the setting just right… 


	4. On to the Hot Springs!

** Legacy of the Ancients**

**Chapter Three: On to the Hot Springs!**

By: Sci-Fi-Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids, but I sure wish I did! (but everything I made up is MINE MINE MINE!!!) 

It has been few days since the incident with Z. So far, it, or should I say she, has not made any moves. We meet Bit talking to his Liger a few hours before the Hover Cargo arrives at the Hot Springs Resort…

"Come on Liger!" said Bit. "Don't feel so bad. I heard that the springs has an obstacle course that some of the more famous people like to use once in a while; you can have fun there. I also heard that there is an awesome repair shop nearby, so you can get that nice clean feeling you've always wanted." (Orbit fans ^_-)

~Well, its still not that much. Nothing to chase, and it takes years to get fixed up! But it does beat being cooped up in here…~ said the Liger to Bit with his telepathic link.

"Well, will you stop complaining at least? We're almost there, and when we're there, you can go run and frolic for all I care." said Bit. "But it will be hard to explain how you're doing all that without me in there… But I'll handle it later."

~Alright, but if you coop me up in a garage again, you're gonna have to watch you're back the whole time!~

"Touchy, but alright. I know how it feels too, but at least you can shut down! I have to stay awake and actually take the crap I get sometimes, especially for Leena…" said Bit, his voice trailing off at the mention of her. 

~You know, you should stake your claim soon, She might get restless and actually go for Harry!~

"Now that would be like Hell freezing over! But maybe you're right. I should at least tell her how I feel. She'll feel the same way, or she'll be grossed out by it. Either way, I'm sure that'll keep her away from me when she discovers my midnight raids" Bit said with a devilish grin. He knew he liked her, but he didn't know _how_ he could possibly like her. She's always been on his back, always bothering him when he was not in the mood, and the like. But she never pushed it, like she was trying to tell him something. He thought that she was doing some form of courtship, but he couldn't lay a finger on it. Before he joined the Blitz team, he was mostly by himself, trying to fulfill his dream; he was a loner. When he met the Liger 0, his dream was complete, and he was living life to the fullest; the only things that composed his universe were the Liger 0, and fighting. But lately, he was feeling an emptiness, one he wasn't sure how to fill… 

At the same time, Leena was having very similar thoughts. She wanted Bit. (I mean _wanted_ Bit) She had been trying to get his attention since the first day she met him. There was something about him that captivated her. Maybe it was his build, or his cocky attitude. She couldn't lay a finger on him. Since the first day, she tried all the tips and tricks that all the girlish magazines said were sure-fire, but her aggressive side always got the best of her. (Hello Helga fans -_^) But she decided enough was enough. She was going through all her clothes to see which one she would make her move on Bit with. If his thick headed self wouldn't see through it, nothing would.

"Eva, which of my bathing suits do you think would get Bit's attention the most?" said Leena to her new AI. She bought it with her prize money, since she was getting lonely in the Base, since she was the only _ girl_. (Ow!, alright, woman! Sheesh, so touchy!). And it had its own vid link connection, which would instantly connect with any other unit, so she could talk to all her other _woman_-friends (~in background~ "That's more like it!"), and not have to worry about the guys peeping.

*…I cannot make any decisions. I do not have any information on the person you call "Bit". But by his name, I can tell that he probably has more…exotic tastes?* replied the AI, in its icy, mechanical voice.

"Well then get Naomi." Ordered Leena. "She has some experience with this kind of stuff"

*…Processing…contact established*

"Hey Leena, what's up?" Replied Naomi in a very cheerful mood.

"I was gonna ask you something, but what makes you so happy?" replied Leena. "Your team did lose the cup" She said in a very gloated manner. (Ow! ~In the background~ "I don't act like that toward Naomi, I have _some_ respect for her you little punk!." Oh alright, I'll try to fit you in better… spoil my fun. "I heard that!")

"Well Miss 'I'm-queen-of-the-world-cause-I-won-the-Royal-Cup', me and Leon ended up heading over to the Hot Springs Resort too, and I was wondering if you'd help me with something" said Naomi out of breath.

"And what may that be?"

"If you could tell me which of these swim suits Brad would be more attracted to?" said Naomi showing her a very skimpy and _very_ tacky green bikini, and a crimson red bikini that makes my body do things I don't think I'm allowed to type and keep this suitable for most people (Ow! ~in the background~ "serves you right, you pervert!").

This question did not surprise her, since most people already knew about her and Brad's secret relationship. "That's kinda ironic, I was about to ask you the same thing, but I say go with the red." said Leena. "At least he can have _some _inkling to who you are. So, which one of these do you think guys would notice and not think me um…slutty?" She showed her three swim suits. One was a shiny aquamarine bikini (made of nylon?). It looked like it would fit perfectly to her form, but it did look at bit…slutty. The second was a hot pink (my fav ^_^) bikini. It seemed shiny, since it was hot pink and all, but it didn't need any special material to stand out. It fit perfectly to her form, better than the aquamarine one. It was solid color, nothing outlining it, or having transitions. It was "plain", yet it stood out, kind of like the Liger 0. The third was the same green bikini that Naomi just showed her.

"I'd say go with the hot pink one. Hehe, and good luck with Bit"

"Hey, how'd you know that! I didn't tell anyone but Eva here, and she doesn't count!" said Leena in disbelief.

"Lady's intuition? It's so obvious. But if you want to know so bad, Brad told me. Sorry Leena, we just arrived. Gotta go, talk to ya later!" Naomi said, and cut the connection.

"Hey, wait! Grr, I'm gonna kill Brad if he told anyone else" said Leena as she stormed out of her room, shutting Eva off for now. 

"Brad!!! When I get my hands on you, you're gonna wish that you never joined the Blitz team!" said Leena in a rage when she finally found Brad. She never told him about her crush, but he still knew, so she had to silence him, one way or another.

"Whoa, what did I do that was so evil?" said Brad in fear, knowing Naomi told her about Leena's secret. But he relaxed as he saw Bit approach the room.

"Ya, what did he do that was so bad?" reiterated Bit.

Leena was about to scold Brad for telling Naomi, and make him bleed if he told anyone else. But when she heard Bit walk in, she just started storming away as suddenly as she just came. But she halted when she heard Jamie and the Doc some in.

"Hey guys" said the Doc. "We're about fifteen minutes from the resort, so get your things ready. And here's the keys to your rooms." said the Doc in a really good mood. Then in a confused kind of way: "Here's the keys to the garage your gonna let the Liger 0 'sleep' in. I don't think Zoids can sleep. I'm starting to think you suffered some brain damage in that fight with Vega…"

"Doc! Liger isn't just a Zoid. He's an Ultimate X!" said Bit reassuringly. "He's like a person. He needs a vacation once in a while, and he also needs someplace to sleep"

"I think he's just lost it Doc" whispered Jamie to the Doc.

"Well whatever may be the case, get ready, cause you guys are getting what you guys deserve!" and in a tone that only Jamie could hear, since he was in ear-shot, "and I can go on a Zoid model shopping spree with all the extra money we got, hehee."

"Doc! Just cause we got all that money, doesn't mean you can just spend it all!" shot Jamie in a very serious tone. "Think about the money it'll take to maintain the Zoids after the battles we're gonna have. The people in class S have been known to duke it out for hours, sometimes days!"

"Well" said the Doc in a tone a disappointed child would use. "We still have a _lot_ of money. And Zoid models don't cost as much at this time of the year…" 

At the Hotel, we go to Leena's room while she's changing…(Ow! Dammit, always spoil my fun. AHH! Its bleedin! ~in the background~ "serves you right, you peeping Tom! I'll let you do that when Bit's in here…NOT. Sheesh, you're worse than Harry." Interesting. Maybe I should make a scene where you're drunk and locked in a room with Harry. "(gasp) No, you wouldn't" But my dear, I could. But you are right, I'll leave those thoughts to myself and get professional)

O.K. then, we go to the garage that Bit is putting the Liger 0 in…

~I'm gonna make you wish you died with the Beserk Fury for this Bit!~ roared the Liger.

"Come on buddy, don't you trust me?" replied Bit, not really affected by the threat. "I figured out what to do. I put this AI into the cockpit, so whenever you want to do something, tell the AI. Just make sure you never open your cockpit outside this garage, cause if people see an empty cockpit, or I'll be in deep"

~Bit, you're such a con artist. Well, you lived up to your word. So how long is this vacation anyway?~

"I'm not sure, but Doc said about three weeks. But we might ;leave sooner, it all depends on when the Doc is about to blow our savings"

~With that in mind, I give about a day.~ said the Liger sarcastically. ~You know the Doc. Well, I think I'll go to sleep for a week, I think I'm sick or something. Not feeling that well~

"You sure you don't want me to check you up in the garage or something buddy? It might be serious."

~Its alright. It's probably some hardware malfunction, but it won't affect my core. I'll go fix it with the money you hid from the Doc when I wake up a week from now. But now, I'm going to sleep~ um… said the Liger as it started to lay dow, and shut down.

"See you later partner…" said Bit, But the Liger was already 'sleeping'" 

Later that day…

Bit got out of his room, changed into a pair of sleek white swim shorts, same color as the liger 0. He was heading toward the Hot springs when he met up with Brad.

"Hey Brad, what's up?"

"Nothing, just heading to the springs. Hope there's one that's empty" said Brad in a nonchalant voice. But he wasn't feeling nonchalant inside. Naomi said that she was heading to the springs, and told him to get a place for them. She also said to make it a spring that could accommodate four people; Her, Brad, Bit and Leena. She explained that Leena had gotten impatient with Bit, and wanted to make her move, so she was gonna help her. But she told him not to worry too much about Bit and Leena, since she had something in store for him…

They turned a corner, and went outside to the springs. While they went past, they saw a bunch of _women_ (got Leena off my back. Ow! Oh, so they don't count now! God, you're impossible!), girls that were blushing when they saw them pass by.

"What's up with them?" asked Bit, very vexed by their behavior.

"Maybe it's seeing one of the best pilots in Zi standing in nothing but shorts?" said brad, equally unsure.

"I'm so flattered Brad" said Bit, getting ready to gloat.

"I didn't say it, some guy on the news did. I still think you're a pack rat that got lucky" said Brad, a smile (for once) forming on his face.

"Grr, well, this pack rat was the one who actually beat Vega!" said Bit, his head all red, ten times its normal size, and a sweat bead hanging on it.

Brad's smile was getting even bigger. He was expecting that, and then a crowd of people swarmed Bit all of a sudden. Comments such as "Are you _the_ Bit Cloud?!?", "Can I have you autograph", and "I want your body" (by some really old lady…ugh) were being thrown at Bit, but he managed to get out of the crowd without them noticing. Then he caught up to Brad, who was in a spring that met Naomi's specifications, and was about to choke him when his attention was turned to the crowd of guys that were following two _women_ that were heading their way. (Yay! I got it right, and Leena didn't slug me!)

They were getting cat-calls, and loud whistles, and some guys were even trying to make moves on them until one of them introduced her fist to someone's nose, and the crowd dissolved as quickly as it had come. It turned out to be Leena and Naomi. Bit's and Brad's Jaws fell when they caught site of the two. They understood why the two made such a ruckus. Naomi moved sensuously in her outfit, and Leena walked like her aggressive self. But she seemed…nervous. It surprised Naomi how well she could make guys drool, and still be able to make them cower if she felt like it.

"What are you guys staring at?" questioned Naomi, barely able to keep her laughter contained. "It feels like those guys are hovering over us again."

"Wh-wh-who are you two, and what did you do to Naomi and Leena" questioned Bit in utter disbelief. Inside his emotions were going wild. If Leena didn't feel towards him, how he felt towards her, let's just say, he was gonna be introduced to Leena's foot; he knew he wouldn't be able to control himself, seeing Leena like that.

Brad wasn't any much different. Right then and there, he was having thoughts that I don't think I'm allowed to type (hehee. Ow!, o crap, I didn't mean it Naomi! Sheesh, I'm gonna have brain damage at the end of this chapter). Like Bit expected (since everyone knew about their relationship), Naomi sat next to Brad, and put his arm around her, since she knew he was too weak to do it himself. But what happened next made Bit's face go white. Leena did the same thing, but to Bit!

"You look like you've seen a ghost or something Bit" said Leena nonchalantly. But she was thinking, Oh. My. God. Will he accept me, or will he reject me! This is the moment of truth…

She could feel him shifting his weight, and thought he was about to reject her. But to her delight, he didn't. He did something as unexpected as her sitting next to him; he planted a kiss on her lips. That caught her off guard, but she realized what was happening and succumbed to his um…ya. Their tongue's were fiercely trying to subjugate the other's. Leena (hahaa!) lost, since she was overpowered by his presence, and could feel him probing her mouth, and she opened her mouth a bit more to give him better access. She could feel Bit putting his hands up her back, pulling her closer. She in turn put her arms around his neck, bringing them closer still. The passion of the moment was mesmerizing, and she wished that that moment would last forever. All she could think about was what she would call the baby. Then Leena started to feel faint and broke the kiss and started panting for dear life. She saw Bit do the same.

"Whoa, I didn't know you guys like each other _that_ much! That was at least two minutes long" said Brad, kind of jealous that Naomi never pulled something like that on him. Leena and Bit both started blushing.

Naomi read him like a book. "You thought that was long?!? Try this on for size!" said Naomi as she lunged for Brad, and held him in a lopsided kiss. He was struggling to get out of the kiss the whole time, it was that strong. It beat theirs by a second, Brad seeing his life go by; then he lunged for her!

Bit sighed and Leena giggled. Then they looked at the other, and gazed into each other's eyes. Leena looked deeply into Bit's eyes, she could see the determination in them. She was mesmerized by their brilliance; the longer she looked, the stronger the spell became. Bit could not help but wonder about how beautiful she looked, and how her eyes sparkled with a fire he had never seen in them before. 

Later that night, in Leena's room, Leena and Bit were laying parallel to each other on Leena's bed just staring at each other's eyes again. Bit made the first move… To the kitchen! (reader's sweat drops). Nah, that's evil (^_-). I'm too nice to do that to them.

Leena broke the stare by taking his hand into hers.

"Bit cloud, I've been trying to get you since the first day I laid eyes on you…" said Leena, her voice trailing off as she got caught in the memories of the failed attempts to get him. Then she snapped back to reality when she remembered his fight with Vega.

"You men and your stupid pride! I thought I lost you when Vega attacked you with his Charge Particle Cannon…" she said, the tears coming down again. When she saw him charge into the shot, she thought she lost him, and was bawling like a baby. When she found out he was alive, she cut off communication, so none would see her cry. 

"It's alright now Leena. I'm still here" said Bit as he wiped the tears off her face. Then he had a lopsided grin. "You can't get rid of me that easily."

This somewhat ticked off Leena, since she did not like to be made fun when she was giving her heart out. She slugged him in the face. She instantly realized what she had done, and tried to tend to his new wound, the fresh tears coming out. But to her surprise, Bit didn't even flinch.

"HaHaa! That won't hurt me anymore. Now that I _want_ you to touch me, any contact is welcome" said Bit in his cockiest voice.

"We'll see about that" said Leena, as she proceeded to tickle Bit to submission.

Bit caught on quick, and countered her tickle with his. He had an advantage though, he was a bit more resistant to being tickled, so he used it to the fullest. He ferociously tickled her until she couldn't tickle him anymore. Then he tackled her, and ended up on top of her. He stopped tickling her, just admiring her beauty. She laughed for a bit more, until she was at rest looking back at him. 

"Mmmm" Leena cooed. "I think you're thinking something very dirty right now"

"Well, now that you mention it..." said Bit, never taking his eyes of her's. He made the first move. Leena tried to resist, but was subjugated into his warm body, and strong arms... (Bit told me that that was probably his best night, next to when... I'm not telling! I _also_ heard that Jamie couldn't sleep, but not because of them; someone else seduced him into her room.) 

(Back at the garage) Z scanned the planet (COOL!!!!!!!!) and discovered that all the Ancients had left, except a few, but they did not really wish to leave. She realized that she was free to do what she wished, so she decided to get to know her surroundings. She learned from the Zoid's computer that the pilot of the Liger was a boy named Bit Cloud. He remarkably had the fighting style of her creator, Giovani. He also had the same bond her master had with his Zoid, just like the boy and this one. They were like mental clones. She decided she liked this "Bit" person, and would spare him. But she decided to take over the Liger anyway, maybe she could help the boy become better with all the powers that she had? Over the next week, she "merged" with everything, except the organoid system. There was something vaguely familiar about it. It felt like her old companion 002. He was the second model, she was the first. She decided she would unravel what this organoid truly was, and then decide if she should merge with it.

________________________________  
  


God, I feel like a girl after this. (I think I let myself go a bit too much for this one. But I was up wayyy past hours doing it, so just bear with me, please? Ow! what was that for! ~in the background~ "You never said who seduced Jamie!" Well, if you MUST know, it was none other than Pierce, now let me sleep!!!)   
a/n: maybe its cliché, but I just can't HELP but have Brad/Naomi, Bit/Leena, and Jamie/Peirce. Maybe I'll stick Leon into the picture? I'm not that fond of him, but I still think he's cool! 

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	5. From the Ashes

** Legacy of the Ancients**

**Chapter Four: From the Ashes**

By: Sci-Fi-Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids, but I sure wish I did! (but everything I made up is MINE MINE MINE!!!) 

The desert is a vast wasteland, offering no shelter to the weak, and only misery and pain for those that can bear it. This particular desert once supported life, a diverse community of species that depended on each other, and supported themselves and their ecosystem. This particular desert used to house a lush rainforest that was bordered by a great city. This city was home to the President of the United People's Alliance, a faction of the Ancient (Zoidian) race that was destined to rule over all of Zi. Throughout this great city's history, it was a city, a military base, a Capitol, an Empire, and finally a Spaceport. The last of the city's populous disappeared with the incoming meteors that marked their civilization's Armageddon. 

After the Armageddon, the planet was scorched, deprived of all the life that it once housed, and life less; it became a barren wasteland. But after eons of dormancy, the first of a great line of human ships came to seize the planet as their own. The massive terraforming projects took place, bringing the once dead planet, back to its greatness once again. But the original inhabitants did not just leave the planet without a legacy, a destiny, one which has finally been put in motion. But the destined has a choice to make once she reaches the cross roads. Will she save those that she has made her new family, or will she let her old memories, and hatred steer her into a course that will doom this planet once again?

But this is not of any concern, not at the moment. This particular desert is our area of concern. This desert was untouched by the terroformers, and left to rot, until a lucrative organization (the Back Draft organization) came to conquer it. They succeeded where others had failed; they had made it their home. But it is home no more. The Ancient's Legacy has struck it, with a power that destroyed all those that crossed it…except for one. He has come back to rebuild his from the ashes. And he will get it by turning the Ancient's Legacy's power against it…

Jani was mad. He was really, really mad; no he was in a rage. He had almost lost his dream (again) because of that stupid relic. The High Council of the Back Draft group was not satisfied with his cover story. Though they did not charge him with any fault for the catastrophe, they threatened to cancel the whole project if he failed to salvage anything from the site. In a desperate attempt to keep his dream alive, Jani begged the council if he could search the site and research anything that remained. The hesitantly agreed, but said failure of his operation would result in him being kicked out _and _blacklisted. So he went back to the site to search for anything that might have survived the assault…

His Hummer trudged through the piercing desert wind until he finally reached the site. All there was to see was desert wasteland, just like everything around him. 

"This will take years to search through" Jani said to himself in annoyance. "How did a archeologist o _my_ caliber become lowered to the class of a janitor?"

The next morning…

Leena woke up on the right side of the bed for once; she was still smiling. She was in Zoid battling for the thrill and exhilaration, something she thought she could never replicate outside of battle. She was still right in that line of thinking, but last night's experience far surpassed the thrill of a Zoid battle…

She was about halfway awake when she realized that something was missing, she could no longer feel Bit's arms around her, or the warmth radiating from his body. She started fearing that it was all just a wonderful dream, and she was still in the hover cargo en-route to the hot springs, but she could hear Bit's voice and she knew it was alright. Though half-asleep, she could partially make out what he was saying.

"…ya, she doesn't know about us… hahaa, she doesn't suspect a thing… of course I still love you… its pretty, isn't it?... I think she's gonna wake up soon, so I'll talk to you later. Ya, bye."

What Leena just heard was starting to upset her. What was his conversation about? Was he already going out with someone? Was he already cheating on her? (less than n12 hours, a new record! Ahh, my spine ~in the background~ "you sniveling rat, how could you do this to me? (sob sob)) She was about to ask him all those questions, but she was already in denial, and she had more trust in him. Besides, he was already back in the bed and snuggling in with her.

"Hey sleeping beauty" said Bit, but added "What's wrong" when he noticed that she had been crying.

"Oh nothing…" she said assuringly "Except trying to figure out what to do when you came back!" she said, back into the happy mood she woke up in. She closed the distance between them and… lets just say, when Bit got out of bed again, his hair refused to go back to its original position.

Sometime later, the two got a call, and Leena insisted that she answer it. It turned out to be Naomi.

"Morning Leena, me and Brad are gonna get some grub. You guys wanna tag along?" said Naomi loud enough for Bit and Brad to hear.

"Sure, just give me a few minutes to change" said Leena also loud enough for Bit and Brad to hear. Leena just had her blanket covering her.

"Just call us when your ready" said Naomi, in the same volume. Then in a volume only Leena could hear "remember our wager?"

"Of course" said Leena loud enough for only Naomi to hear. Then in a voice loud enough for the boys to hear. "Alright, see ya later" 

A few minutes later, Leena was changed and told Naomi that they were ready. She didn't wait for Bit to change, since he changed before she woke up. Leena and Naomi had rooms opposite of each other, sp when they left their rooms, they saw each other. The ladies exited first.

"Morning Leena, still up for our wager?" asked Naomi. She was referring to a wager that they made en-route to the guys in the hot springs. If Leena and Bit became an item, their wager would be valid, where whoever ruffed their respective guy more would get to eat the other's dessert for the night, since they planned to double date again.

"Of course, lets wait to see the merchandise" replied Leena.

Bit and Brad came out at the same time, and when they saw each other, they burst out laughing. In his fit of laughter, Bit managed to say

"You too?"

"Ya" replied Brad, assuming he was talking about last night.

Bit's hair was a mess, well, messier than usual. His clothes looked like he just came out of a Zoid battle, if not a fist fight. Brad was no better. His hair was ruffled, but not as ruffled as his clothes or pride.

"…I think it's a tie" Naomi finally said.

"Me too" replied Leena. They all headed to the food court.

When they got there, they saw Jamie sitting next to a pretty woman that some of them thought they had seen before, but no one really knew her. They decided to investigate.

"Hey Jamie, who's the chick?" asked Brad.

"She's my little lad… Ow! Sorry, I mean her name is Pierce" he replied. They all got introduced to each other.

"You guys wanna sit with us?" Jamie asked

"Why not, get to know your friend there better" replied Naomi. Everyone sat down except Bit.

"Oh man, I forgot something back at my room, I'll be back real quick" Bit exclaimed.

"You want me to come with you?" asked Leena.

"No" said Bit flatly and ran away.

"What was that about that all about?" asked Naomi.

"I don't really know…" replied Leena, starting to remember what she had heard that morning. He came back a few minutes later, showing his wallet.

"Sorry guys, don't know how I forgot" said Bit. He sat down next to Leena and put an arm around her. She responded by putting her arm around him, and rested her head on his shoulder.

Being a Monday, the restaurant was having a special, Morningside Platter (I'm not good with names). It consisted of pancakes with maple syrup, omelets, toast and a side of hash browns. It also included coffee, tea, or juice. Everyone but Jamie ordered it. Jamie ordered an egg sandwich and some juice, since he was a light eater. When everyone was done, Jamie asked Bit how he and Leena hooked up, since they were literally at each others throats during the trip to the springs. 

"So Bit, why did you and Leena hook up? You two were at each other's throats the last time I checked…" inquired Jamie. (I know, I know, I just said that).

"Well, it turned out the Leena and I actually liked each other the whole time we just could never get the courage to hook up" replied Bit.

"I see" replied Jamie, who lost the look of confusion on his face he had on since he and Pierce were joined by the two couples.

"So," Bit asked "how did you and Pierce get hooked up? I don't think I've ever seen Pierce, but her name does ring a bell"

"I think Pierce should explain, since she had a more complicated situation" replied Jamie.

"Ya, that is true…" she said "hmm, lemme see where I should start… Ok, the first time Jamie and I met was during a Zoid battle. Back then, I was undefeated as a Back Draft pilot. Well, during that battle, he decided to nickname me "Little Lady", and that infuriated me. SO I decided to teach him a lesson, but he still managed to beat me. I don't think I'll ever forget that cocky "Wild Eagle" smirk he had on his face when he left (at the time of this conversation, Jamie did not turn into the Wild Eagle anymore. The skills were a part of Jamie now, not the Wild Eagle). So I basically got obsessed with him for two reasons. The first one was obviously revenge, something that consumed me until the end of my Back Draft service. The other was an attraction to him that I couldn't lay a finger on. So I fought him in a few more battles, but I lost every one, even one where I had a Gojulas backing me up." Jamie blushed from the obvious comment. "Then I fought a final battle for him, one where I wagered my life, since my superiors where being embarrassed by my losing streak, and said I would either win, or die. Fighting was my life, so I had to take the deal. We had an intense battle and I lost as usual. But instead of leaving me there to die, Jamie, not the Wild Eagle, got me out of there and saved me from the Storm Sworders sent to get both of us. While trying to get us out of there, one of them shot down my Storm Sworder, and I had to eject, but Jamie caught me in his cockpit. When I was in the cockpit seeing him fight, I saw that I should have never even attempted to fight him; I wasn't in his league. Before I passed out, all my rage and hate that consumed me was gone. Jamie and the Doc pulled some strings and got me a new identity, and I started a new life. But me and Jamie kept in touch with each other since then, and our attraction became love. Yesterday was the first time we've seen each other since then, and last night…" Pierce was gagged by a red faced Jamie who said:

"I think that's enough". Jamie calmed down, and everyone else started laughing. Then Bit and Leena chanted in unison: "Jaime and Pierce, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First comes love, then comes… AH! My eyes! They burn" Jamie had flung salt and pepper dispensers at the two. Leena was lucky that the pepper dispenser had missed her, but Bit was hit flat in the face. Bit promptly jumped up and ran to the bathroom, faster then the Liger 0 Jager. 

30 minutes later…

"What's taking him so long" said a concerned Leena.

"Maybe I overreacted…" said an ashamed Jamie.

"Nah, I do that to him all the time" replied Leena as she got up "I'm gonna go check on him"

"Well, since everyone is done, the rest of us will head to the waterfall, and you can meet us there when you finish handling the situation."

"Alright, see you guys later"

"Bye" they said in unison, and headed to the water fall.

Leena headed to the men's room. She started thinking that Bit had lost his way toward it, since she had to make many turns to reach it. When she finally did reach it, she saw Bit and her worries disappeared. She was about to call him, when she saw another woman next to him. She looked exactly like bit, except she had orange hair, was slightly shorter than him, and of course, was female. This morning's secret phone call came back to her "_she doesn't suspect a thing." _They appeared to be talking, so she backtracked and eavesdropped into their conversation. 

"Ya, its perfect. Just do the finishing touches to it." Said Bit to the woman.

"See you later then Bit" said the woman, and kissed him lightly on the cheek. Then she ran off.

Leena, shocked from what she had just seen, ran back to the table, not able to think of anything better, a trail of tears following her. 

When Bit came back, Leena intended to give him a piece of her mind. But when she saw his face, she almost cried…or laughed. His eyes were bloodshot, and puffy; he looked like he had been crying for some time. She then decided that she loved Bit too much to be mad at him. She hoped against all hope that what she saw was not what it seemed. She hoped he had a reasonable excuse for being with that woman. 

The rest of the week past by without incident. But Someone is stirring from a deep sleep, and a surprise awaits him when he wakes up…

The garage was a desolate place. It was lifeless, but alive. All the humans had been replaced by a mechanized system, that was "far superior and efficient" than any human was. Sparks and pilot lights were the only things that pierced the darkness, repairing and refitting the Zoids of other guests at the hotel. All the Zoids had lost the fire and will for battle to the mandatory shut down. Even the now legendary Liger 0 had fallen to this fate. Liger (as Bit and other eventually referred to him) had laid dormant for a week now, resting from all the toil and struggle it had to do to from the royal cup. But as it lay dormant, something was changing inside of him. It was taking over his body, atom by atom, converting them into nano bots that mimicked their past shapes. The conversion was finished three days ago, all of the Liger converted except its blackbox, the heart of the Ultimate X. it decided to wait and see if this…thing was its long lost partner; and friend. It was unusual for a Zoid to rest. It was a machine, it couldn't get tired. But Liger was different, it was an Ultimate X, who's true powers were never realized…not until now.

Liger woke up from his week long sleep. He felt refreshed, but he still felt that something was amiss inside of his machinery, though it was not what he felt before he shutdown. He felt stronger, almost like how he was from days long past. He shrugged off those memories, the pain threatening to take control of him. He decided to take a run in the obstacle course. He told the robot to prep him for insertion. The robot never replied. 

~Count on Bit to give me a busted robot~ thought Liger angrily. He decided that Bit should suffer for not preparing well; he was going to go to the course unpiloted. He opened the garage door and lunged forward. Or he thought he did. He was still exactly in the position he had awoken from. 

~Having trouble?~ said sinister a voice in his head. Liger thought he was virused or something…he hadn't heard that voice since…no it wasn't possible.

~What are you, and what are you doing inside my…head?~ said an angry, yet scared Liger.

~Is that how you greet your love?~ replied the voice, sounding even eviler then first.

~What do you mean my love? The only being I have ever loved died trying to save me and our comrades. I watched her die in front of me! So stop lying, and tell me who you are!~ snapped the Liger.

~ So, you still love me Hiro?~ said the voice again.

~Is…that…really you, Haru?~ said a bewildered Liger.

~Yes, its me my love. It's been a long time since I've seen you…~ the one know as Z replied (Haru).

~…But…how did you survive. We all saw you take out the resistance's leader by keeping his Fire Storm Generator from hitting the spaceport. And we checked the remains, none of your bots survived…~

~Can't get rid of me that easy… well, right before he fired, I ejected the information-core carrying bots. Unfortunately, one of the resistance fighters found me first and banished me into that damned container for centuries. And he kept this organiod called Z to watch me. I took him over, but I had to wait to see if it was safe to go out yet. Well, why are you still here? Shouldn't you have gone with the first squadron?~ she replied

~Well, I was so devastated by your loss, that the commander reluctantly let me stay, so that I might find you again.~ he said.

~How like you, so stubborn. Well, all that matters is that you are here now.~

~Ya. It's good to see you again…wait, where are you?~ said the Liger (Hiro)

~Well…I took over your body…~

~What! Why'd you do that?~

~I don't like Ligers all that much. Say, what happened to you? Your made of bots, just like I am. How'd u get cooped up in there?~ Haru inquired

~Well, this is really a form that keeps the bots from reproducing. All you have to do is find a thing to go into. You can do it too, but you'll have to abandon the bots that make this Liger…~

~Well…it isn't like we need to be space ready anymore…but I don't want to be cooped up like that.~ she pouted.

~You can also take the form of a human if you'd like~

~That's ok…let me take a form.~ Haru replied. A chunk from somewhere on the Liger fell to the ground. It took the form of a human. She had light skin, green hair, and violet eyes. She was tall, and lean, but remarkably pretty; she looked about 18ish. She had her hair cut up to her neck, and had on multiple hairclips with pretty butterflies on them. She then morphed on her clothes. She wore a white T-shirt, and kaki denim pants that went to her upper thigh. She also morphed on tan sandals with cute little butterflies where the two string things converged. She put on dark yellow sunglasses that curved to fit her head

~Interesting…Where'd you get her from?~ asked Hiro.

"When I scanned the planet, I remembered images of those that were considered pretty or beautiful, and complied them into one being" she relied.

~Perfectionist as usual…well, can you make a hole for me so I can get out?~ Hiro asked.

"Sure" she replied. A hole appeared under where Hiro's black box was. The black box fell out with a squish. "eww"

Hiro morphed into a human. He had dark skin, blonde hair and hazel eyes. He was about an inch taller than Haru, but heavily built. He showed off his muscles without shame. When he noticed this, he shrunk them so he looked normal, but still "buff". He then morphed on a white "wife beater" (slang name for an under shirt) and shorts that went right under his knees. He morphed on sandals that didn't go between his toes, but wrapped around his foot. He put on black sunglasses that curved to fit his head.

"And who is this" asked Haru

"A variation of a sports hero I once saw" he relied.

"Well, I'm tired of being here, lets go!" cried Haru in glee.

"Sure, just don't embarrass yourself like you did in the beach that other time." Hiro said remembering the time when Haru accidentally dropped a bot on a line holding a weight down, which broke because of the bot chewing it away.

They left the garage, desolate once again. 

Brad, Naomi, Bit, Leena, Jamie and Pierce decided to go to the carnival that day. So far, Brad Bit and Leena had been winning most of the prizes, being that they were competing among themselves. But Pierce surprised everyone by winning a grand prize at a shooting range. She won a stuffed teddy bear that was almost as big as she was! Naturally, Jamie had to lug it around.

"Wow Pierce, where'd you learn to shoot like that?" asked Naomi, who was jealous that someone beat her so easily. She was supposed to be the best snipe in all of Zi for crying out loud! How did an amateur like Pierce out gun/class her in her own domain?

"I don't use computers to help me target when I shoot down other people, but I am a bit rusty…I haven't used a Zoid in some time now." she explained.

"Oh…"

"Hey" said Leena "look at those two people over there"

"Who" asked Brad

"He dark blonde and the light green head" she said.

"Leena, don't point. Don't stare either" scolded Jamie. "See what you've done Leena, now they're coming over here"

"Are you _ the_ Bit Cloud?" asked Hiro.

"Why, yes I am, who are you?" said Bit

"My name is Hirokazu Hyunee, and this is Harukichi Matsumi" Hiro said, pointing to himself and that Haru respectively.

"I haven't seen you two around, did you two just arrive?" asked Jamie

"Well, we were here for a week now, but we…" Hiro said as he was cut off by Haru

"…we were in the spa, since we were exhausted from…work." she finished.

"Oh, that's strange…I didn't know the spa was open for so long. Oh well." said Bit.

"Bit, I can call you Bit, can't I? Well can I have a word with you?" asked Hiro.

"Um…sure." said Bit and walked away with Hiro.

"What was that about?" asked Leena.

"I think Hiro just wanted to talk to Bit about something personal. Hiro is crazy about Bit sometimes…he knows things about him that I don't even want to think about…" replied Haru.

"YOU'LL WHAT!!!" they group heard Bit shriek suddenly. 

Far away, in the ruins of a once great base stood a cloaked man, struggling to find something. What it was, he didn't know, it just had to be something. He had been at it for a week now. Going over areas that the once great labs stood, and over the areas where the escapee that gone over. He had been toiling in the burning sun during the daytime, and the ice cold winds during the nighttime. So far, all his toils had been in vain. Everything that was here simply vanished; what remained was either sand, or turned to sand by the slightest touch. 

Then he noticed something peculiar. He saw a few drops on liquid lying on what looked like a magnetic strip. His mind was racing; if it was what he thought it was, he was finally done! He took out his mobile Electron Microscope, and examined the liquid. His thoughts were correct; he saw a "sea" of little immobile robots. He realized he didn't need the backdraft anymore. He could reprogram these robots and be their master. Then he would capture that rogue, and fulfill his destiny!

What did Hiro tell Bit? And what evil deed is Jani planning on doing? Find out in the next chapter "Enter The Dragon". Long chapter, this was. Boo!

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	6. Enter The Dragon

** Legacy of the Ancients**

**Chapter Five: Enter The Dragon**

By: Sci-Fi-Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids, but I sure wish I did! 

For those who are confused, Haru (Harukichi Matsumi) is the one formerly known as Z. Hiro (Hirokazu Hyunee) is the Liger 0. 

I apologize if these names turn out obscene, I'm relatively fresh with Japanese and Korean names.

Anything in "…" is said with sound (via mouth or speaker of sorts)

Anything in ~…~ is said telepathically

Anything in -…- is said virtually (inside a computer or a digital world) 

"YOU'LL WHAT!!!" they group heard Bit shriek suddenly. Hiro quieted Bit down and spoke to him some more.

Bit and Hiro came back a few moments later, looking like they were old friends or something of that nature. Something was up. "Hiro and Haru are going join us in our activities. Hiro and I are old…partners, and I want to get to know him better." said an obviously agitated Bit.

"Oh, well, lets go to the circus. I hear that they have some really good acrobats." suggested Jamie.

"Sure, lets go." said Naomi.

~What did you tell him~ telepathed Haru

~That if he didn't acquire us in his group, I'd give away a secret he's keeping from Leena~ he relied

~So mean…~ replied Haru with a scoldful look.

~Its just Bit~ replied Hiro with an innocent look.

~Some friend you are~ Haru said, and then giggled at the thought 

What makes something alive? Scientists define it as something that can reproduce, repair itself grow and seek food. But these are all material things. It is more like a group of nonliving things "magically" working together to become something alive. What force compels these things to work together? That puts us into the gray area of life…the mystery that people have been fighting over for centuries. Is it some God or spirit, or is it all just chance? It all depends on faith. One thing that makes us humans stand out among the "living" things in this world is our remarkable ability of thought. We can think about an action and determine its consequences before it actually happens. We can manipulate matter to do things for _us_, and not make us work for this material world. We are, at the moment, masters of our universe, no matter how much of it we actually control.

So how would do scientists classify something that thinks but is not "alive"? They could just say that "It's just AI, it's a bunch mathematical equations and coding that react to specific problems." But how do you differentiate between a machine, a machine that can think and a "living" thing that doesn't think? Does it have to be able to reproduce, repair itself grow and seek food, but in a unconventional way? Does it have to think b be truly "alive"? And if it can think and is "alive" does it have a soul? And if it has a soul, what happens when you extinguish its life? Does it go to heaven and hell like we do? Or does it just cease to exist? What is the meaning of life… So many questions, so little time.

The Fujakashi mountain range is one of the most desolate and untouched mountain ranges in Zi. It stretches deep from the republican mainland, and becomes the border for the Empire and Republic for almost half of the entire border. The only known inhabitants of the mountains are some small villages that surround the mountains, where the melted ice caps form streams and lakes. Guards and soldiers used to be heavily post there, but recent peace has worn it to nothing. But something has happened to the mountains over the last two days. And like all desolate places, things can happen without anyone's notice. The Fujakashi mountain range holds a secret so old, no one knew about it for the last half century. But a certain archeologist stumbled onto its location on a dig, and is now reactivating it.

Dr, Jani has somehow managed to take over the old and abandoned Imperial Secret Weapons lab. This lab was where an previously unknown, and till now, forgotten Zoid was created and stored. Its name was Fist of Mercury. It was a dragon type Zoid/dinosaur hybrid that held powers never previously harnessed. But it was basically a failed copy of the Geno Saurer with flight capabilities, that was abandoned, due to the violent nature of the Zoid. It was left there to rot and die (by having its core waste away). Now it is but a mere shell of its former self. Cold and lifeless, it has lost the fire that burned inside of it, the fire which made it destroy half of its creators.

-Where am I?- asked the remaining part of Haru. Jani had cultivated the liquefied part of Haru, and contained it in a robotics workshop. He was about to delete Haur, and replace it with his own AI, CABAL.

"Why my pet, you're in a secret lab, and I'm going to destroy you!" replied Jani, talking like he was going mad.

-No way, I'm gonna escape!- snapped back Haru

"My dear, escape is impossible, I am now taking you over and reprogramming you" said Jani, menacingly

-You…you couldn't! its impossible-

"Don't think you can stall. There I've already virused you. There is no escape now. My virus will take over you in a few moments" he replied coldly.

-I'm gonna…make you…pay for…ahhh!!!!....- Haru couldn't finish her threat, she was being eaten away by Dr Jani's evil virus.

"See, I told you there was no escape. CABAL, are you done reprogramming it?" said a thoroughly pleased ani.

~Yes master. I am ready to acquire the Fist of Mercury.~ its replied, so coldly that it chilled even Jani. It almost seemed to have a mind of its own.

I'll have to fix his voice…I don't like its tone "Excellent. Begin acquiration immediately" he said. Soon…Jani thought to himself. Soon my destiny will be realized! 

"I liked the clowns" Leena said happily as the clowns took a bow to end their performance.

"What! How can all you people think that. Clowns are some of the most sick and scary things in the world" said Bit cowering behind Leena.

"And this is the one who won the Royal Cup…" mumbled Brad with his sweat dropped.

"Ladies and gentlemen." said the ring master. "Raynos and Brothers is proud to present, for the first time this year, the Amazing Bandoleers!"

The crowd clapped and then the clapping died down. 

"Our performers and Ted Swazy, Alexander Kerensky, Jack Smalls, Anne Cloud, Macy Windo, and Tracy Summers." said the ringmaster as the performers came in respectively. "This group of talented individuals have been doing this for 5 years, and are doing their first performance without a net."

The spotlight went over the performers one more time. Wait…(thought Leena) Isn't that the ____ that was trying to steal my Bit! Leena's anger spiked all of a sudden, and she accidentally punched Bit in the Face while he was resting his head on her shoulder. The anger dissipated as quickly as it had come and she was kissing his "boo-boo". All Bit did was say "You could've just told me to get off!" Leena apologized and let him rest his head on her shoulder again. She did feel like he was nervous though, like he was hiding something.

The acrobats had all gone to their positions and the music started. They started a simple routine of just going on the suspended bars and holding it with their legs and flinging and catching their partners to the other side. Then the guys held the girls and waited for the bars to be positioned at points of equal distances from the other two (think of where the angles of an equilateral triangle are). Then the guys threw the girls at one another. They passed them with two hands, then one hand, and finally by the legs. Then they went back to their initial routine and passed the acrobats to one another, until all but two were on a platform. The guys holding the a woman (the one Leena suspected Bit had an affair with) threw her towards the platform. The music stopped, signaling the end of the show. But instead of ending, the woman missed the platform! It seemed that the guy had misjudged the angle he shot her at. She was falling and was mere feet from the ground when all of a sudden, and blur caught her; the music started again, but this time it played a short fanfare, and finally ended the performance. The crowd sighed in relief (after seeing that she was caught), and then exploded with happiness and clapped. For some time afterwards. It seemed that while everyone was focused on the blonde, one of the acrobats secretly mounted a bar and swung to her at a calculated time. 

"And that was the Amazing Bandoleers!" exclaimed the ringmaster, almost as excited as the crowd. "Give them another round of applause!" and everyone obeyed. The lights went on, signaling the end of this performance; parents and kids rushed to get autographs. Leena was about to express her joy to Bit, but he was nowhere to be found. She spotted him next to that ____, and it seemed that they were exchanging autographs. They gave them to each other, and then that woman gave something to him. It looked shiny and expensive. He briefly examined it and gave it back to her. Then he said some things and went to Leena.

"And who was that?" inquired Leena, trying to keep her anger in check.

"A…friend, ya, a friend" replied Bit nervously

"And what did she show you? Her necklace?" said Leena, struggling to keep herself from slugging Bit right and there. His excuse, an obvious lie, just made her angrier.

"Not hers…I mean it was a medal she got. It caught my eye and I asked her to see it. OK, lets go, they're leaving us behind!" said Bit in his conniving fashion. 

Leena was about to say something, but Bit pulled her off her feet; she had to run to keep up. With every step she took, her anger faded away… 

Back at the lab…

"CABAL, have you located all the on-board data in the Fist of Mercury?" said an impatient Jani. E wanted to make sure that the original programming for the Zoid did not interfere with CABAL.

-Yes, master. What shall I do with them?- he replied in his chilling voice.

"Go through all of them and keep only the programs that let the machine move. Upload everything else to my computer."

-Yes, master-

"Oh, and CABAL, update yourself with this patch before you do anything"

-Why master? Is there a inefficiency that I have not processed yet?-

"No, just something I want to change. Its nothing serious. It won't effect your programming." Said Jani reassuringly. Not that he needed to. CABAL would do anything for him without question.

-Thank you master. I am updating now.- He was working. -Done- he said in his new voice. It sounded like Jani's parents…

Like all orbital planets, Zi revolves around its sun(s), because of their gravitational attraction, a force that mankind just recently defined. But it can't be explained in words, since it was derived mathematically, while someone was trying to find out the rules for the tenth dimension (to my knowledge, this plane is composed of nine dimensions, but I may be wrong). Because of its many suns, Z has an elliptical orbit that put it two times as far as it is from its closest proximity then it is in its farthest (meaning the points that are farthest from the center have a distance twice as large as the points that are closest from the center. So if the farthest points are two away from the center, the closest are one away from the center. I said all this because I don't think I explained it all too well.). This makes Zi's summers very hot, and winters very cold. But the planet has an unusual direction of spin, sometimes setting it up for summer when it is farthest from the sun(s), and sometimes setting it up for winter when it is closest to the sun(s). Presently, it is a distance in between the two extremes, and setup on the transition between winter and summer (which can be though of as spring, but it is really an abrupt change, lasting one week at most). Summer will commence in two days.

If one was at the Hot Springs Resort, at the present moment, he or she would see he sun(s) setting to the northeast. It is a dazzling event. The color of the sky changes from blue to darker blue (with a black backdrop during the rest of the transition). to yellow then orange, then violet and finally black. This particular night had a near cloudless sky, letting all the celestial heavens show off their prettiness. If that person were at the Hotel at this particular moment, he or she would see a sky plastered with an endless volume of stars, galaxies, pulsars, nebulas, and if they knew where to look, the sun known as Sol, the sun for the planet known as Terra (or Earth). If one had a fairly large telescope, one could see the mother of all mankind. But no one would know where to look, since Terra had been long forgotten, and has been dead fro some time since the sun went Red Giant. It is supposed to go Nova, White Dwarf, or Black hole in the next few centuries, making it impossible for mankind to traces back his heritage…

Later that night

Bit and Leena were taking a stroll through the open roofed food court. They had stopped walking when Leena gazed into the sky.

"Doesn't it perplex you sometimes?" asked Leena.

"Ya, sure…" replied Bit. He was transfixed into watching Leena. She looked beautiful right now. No she was always beautiful thought Bit. She looked stunning right now. Her eyes twinkled with the stars. Her dress was giving off an unnatural glow. Dammit, _ she_ was giving off an unnatural glow. Bit was consumed by this. He longed for her more than he had ever longed for her his whole life. He decided to do it today and not wait till the end of their vacation. While Leena kept on blabbing about space and the stars, he called Anne and told her to meet him at a particular restaurant. Though the call had distracted him, the second he looked at Leena, he felt an uncontrollable urge to be with her. He slowly went up to Leena. Went up to her face. He was staring right at her, his eyes level with hers. She finally noticed.

"Is there something wrong Bit?" Leena asked worried something had happened to him in the last few minutes. But those thoughts disappeared when she saw Bit's eyes.

"Nothing" their lips drew closer. "Nothing at all" 

Back at the garage…

~Well, so we agree that I stay as Liger 0, and you will join the Blitz Team as Harukichi Matsumi.~ said Hiro, back to his spot in the Liger 0.

"Yes, that's how we'll do it. Now the question is, how?" she said.

~Well, I can force Bit to get you into our team. That shouldn't be too hard.~ he replied.

"Oh. Well, according to what you're telling me, you guys wont leave for at least three days. What should we do?" Haru said.

~Lets just keep on going in as ourselves. I don't see any problem with that.~ said Hiro.

"Yes. But I don't have anywhere to stay…" pouted Haru.

~Then stay with me, there's room for one more…~

"It's the moment you've been waiting for, isn't it?" she rhetorically asked. She walked up to the beast,

~That, and when you get in here~ Hiro replied. He opened a hole for her to get into. She just giggled. She went up to the hole, and melted into it. It closed behind her. When she finally reached Hiro, they mixed with each other, a soup of nono-bots and minds… 

At an undisclosed restaurant…

Where is she? Thought Bit. 

"So Bit, why'd you bring us here? This place looks too rich for our blood." said Leena sarcastically.

"Uh…I wanted to show you something…wait. I have to go to the bathroom first!" said Bit, as he ran for the bathroom. 

"What are you up to, Bit Cloud?" said Leena to herself.

Outside the bathrooms, Bit called Anne again. "Anne, what's taking you so long?" said a nervous Bit.

"There was traffic, but I'm almost there; I just parked." she replied.

"Good, meet me in front of the bathrooms. And watch out for Leena, I don't want her to suspect a thing." Said Bit, a little more calm now.

"Alright, I'll be there in a flash!" she ended the conversation.

"Funny little kid" said Bit to himself. 

Back at the lab…

"CABAL, what is your conversion status?" asked Jani, anxious to see his greatest work yet.

-99.5% complete. Estimate total conversion in 10 seconds. Estimate reinitialization in 2 minutes after wards.- it realied.

"Very well."

-Conversion complete. Set reinitialization on manual or auto?-

"Auto" he ordered.

-Auto reinitialization initialed.-

Jani's screen showed the status.

Initializing system…please wait…System Online…

Powering nano-bots…please wait…Power up successful…

Initializing servos…please wait…Servo initialization successful…

Initializing tertiary circuitry…please wait…Tertiary circuitry initialization successful…

Installing tertiary circuitry…please wait…Installation successful…

Initializing secondary circuitry…please wait…Initialization successful…

Installing secondary circuitry…please wait…Installation successful…

Warning! Warning! Unknown entity has blocked all invasive attempts!

"No! Not again!" cried Jani as de ja vu hit home. 

Back at the restaurant…

Leena had been waiting a whole ten minute for Bit now. They already got their food, and when the waiter saw to servings, but one person, she gave her a disgusted look. "He's in the bathroom" she angrily replied. Then she saw the unthinkable. That ____ went into the restaurant, and headed straight to the bathroom. She was about to go there to and give them a piece of her mind, but then she decided to figure out how to kill them first. After a few minutes of delegation, she finally made up her mind on the slowest and most painful way to kill both of then with her bare hands. 

She headed towards the bathrooms. When she finally reached it, she saw something that broke her heart. Bit was hugging that____! 

What happened to Jani's experiment?

And what is Bit doing, hugging that other woman, when he's so deeply in love with Leena?

Find out in the next chapter "The Clashing Destinies".

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	7. The Clashing Destinies

** Legacy of the Ancients**

**Chapter Six: The Clashing Destinies**

By: Sci-Fi-Raptor

Disclaimer: What! I own Zoids! Oh no, its just a dream. I don't own Zoids, but I sure wish I did!

On a side note, the names of the villagers are names of people I actually know, I AM NOT RACIST! 

Warning! Warning! Unknown entity has blocked all invasive attempts!

"No! Not again!" cried Jani as de ja vu hit home.

Warning! Warning! Unknown entity is downloading all databases available!

Jani quickly ran to his desk and took out his EMP rifle.

Warning! Warning! Unknown has uploaded an unknown agent!

Jani frantically started firing the rifle at the Zoid.

Warning! Warning! Virus detected! Virus is taking over all syste…

…………………………………………….m…Intruder system taken over. Objective one complete.

Jani liquefied the bots, but they reassembled them selves faster than he could freeze them.

Destroying all enemies in range of escape route…Processing…

The dragon stirred to life. It seemed to be stretching at first, then its eye lids opened. They revealed burning red eyes, with a even redder center; the retina of the machine's eye. Hen it blew off steam, and all the cables attached to it came off. All the nano-bots that where disabled by Dr. Jani's EMP rifle reactivated and went to their spots. Suddenly, the dragon turned to Jani, and hissed. Jani could swear it said his name.

"I told you I would make you pay, Jani" snarled the augmented Dragon Zoid. 

"But…how…how did you survive? CABAL deleted you!" said Jani in disbelief.

"FOOL!" snapped the dragon. "You deleted my surface programming, but my real programming was kept intact, and it resurfaced when my nano-bots multiplied. But my surface programming has been replace by this Zoid's; and it urges me to kill all things that are alive. And that means I will start with YOU!"

_Mother…Father…I have failed you…_thought Jani. The dragon breathed in a huge volume of air, and spewed out flames that licked everything in their path; all that remained were ashes. "No!!!" said Jani in agony as the great Dragon burned him to a crisp. The red flame engulfed him and burning chunks of flesh could be seen coming off of him. When the smoke cleared, all that was left was Jani's charred, black bones, still in their final positions. The Dragon did a Leyon type laugh, and stepped on his remains. When it removed its foot, ashes and dust was left. The air circulation system of the lab blew it away outside. Satisfied with its revenge, the dragon fired its hidden PPC's (Particle Pulse Cannons, which popped out from under its wings) at the nearest exit. The area it hit simply disappeared, and made a shockwave that forced the dragon to clap down (like a Zoid when it uses a charged particle cannon), to keep it from falling over. Then it opened its massive wings, and hidden boosters popped out. It started to run, and the boosters ignited, accelerating it to Mach 1 in less than a second. It went straight to the nearest cloud, leaving a trail of smoke and burned blood behind it. 

In a nearby village…

Babba was harvesting the wheat at this time. This season promised a great harvest, one that might bring his village out of debt, and even prosperity. He and his friends were cutting the stalks down, since they couldn't afford the machinery, and throwing mud balls at each other once in awhile. Aku was almost done cutting his share of the crop, when they heard a loud explosion in the distance. He and his friends looked up and saw what they thought was an angel…or devil. It was black with red stripes all over it. It had two great wings that were almost as large as his house. And there where four bright things on it. Two red lights where the eyes would be, and two blue lights right under the wings. But it disappeared in an instant, leaving only a trail of smoke behind it. 

"What…was that?!?" Manzi said in shock.

"It was most certainly a demon spirit!" said Hajji, in his Indian accent

"No way, it was a dragon!" argued Simit.

"No, you're both wrong…and right. It was a Zoid. A Zoid that most people don't know about. My father searched for that Zoid all his life. It was made by the Imperials at a secret base. It was a copy of an evil Zoid, but they abandoned it since it killed its own creators. My dad said that its name was the Fist of Mercury." said Babba. "Lets go and see where it came from" he said as he ran toward the mountain.

"But we're not done yet!" said Manzi

"And what if it comes back?" said Simit

"Oh, come on you cowards. He's gonna beat us there!" said Hajji as he tried to catch up to Babba. 

Back at the restaurant…

Leena headed towards the bathrooms. When she finally reached it, she saw something that broke her heart. Bit was hugging that ____!

Leena crumpled the note that Bit had secretly put in her food. It was something that kept Leena preoccupied, since it was something that explained how much Bit Loved her, and it made her love him even more. Bit heard the sound and looked at her in shock, unaware that she was watching. She threw the note at him and screamed "How could You!", and ran away, a trail of glistening tears behind her.

Leena ran and ran until she could run no more. Then she collapsed on the floor; the pain and exhaustion had took its toll. She collapsed on the floor and just cried. _How could he? He loved me, but he was with another woman the whole time!_

"Leena!" yelled Bit as he finally caught up to her. 

"Go away! You've hurt me enough. First you say you love me, and then you go frolicking with that…that ____!" said Leena, her anger taking control. When he was close enough, Leena got to her feet and started pounding him. But all he did was wrap his arms around her. Her blows became weaker and weaker as Bit's comforting arms caressed her, melting her anger away; the pain came back full fledged. She buried her head into his chest, Bit continuing to soothe her.

"Why did you do this to me Bit? You know I love you…" said Leena, the tears making a big wet spot in Bit's shirt.

"Leena, I would never do anything to hurt you…" he said reassuringly.

"Then who was the woman!" she said, her anger spiking. She ended the embrace and looked at him coldly. The tears were still there, and still coming.

"Leena…she's not what you think she is. She's my cousin Anne. Anne Cloud." said Bit, realizing that he had not covered his tracks well enough.

"She…she's your cousin?" Leena said in utter disbelief. She realized that she shouldn't have mistrusted Bit, they loved each other too much to do something like that to one another. Then she got the connection. They were both Clouds! She seemed to have missed her name when the ringmaster was introducing them; she was preoccupied with hate and jealousy. "Then… what were you two doing behind my back?" she said, mad that Bit was dong something secret.

"Well, we were making you this." Bit said, taking a black velvet box out. 

Leena opened it, and gasped. It was a gold and silver alloy necklace with two intersecting hearts hanging on it. There was one outline of a heart that was made of gold. It was about one millimeter wide, with a stone about half a millimeter wide following the outline in the middle. (|**|**|ß think of the smaller lines as the edge of the gold, and the bigger line where the stone would be. And the stone is not a stone, like a diamond would be, it is a bunch of stones put together to look like a solid stone that is in the shape of an outline of a heart.). The stone was the color of Leena's eyes, and it was very brilliant, even though there wasn't that much light where they were. There was another identical heart behind it, and north east of it (higher and to the right of it), but this was made of silver, and had stones the color of Bit's eyes.

"Its…beautiful" said Leena. She hugged him very tightly, to the point where he was having trouble breathing. When she realized this, she let go of the embrace…blushing when she saw his blue face. 

When he recovered, Bit told her to try it on. "You look beautiful in that". He saw that familiar glow in her again…

Later that night, Leena was formally introduced to Bit's cousin Anne Cloud. They were old friends, they had talked to each other, via e-mail, since she became an acrobat. She had been urging Bit to make a move on Leena for some time now, but when they were heading towards the resort, she told him to make his move with greater amplitude. She did this, since her company was going to set up some time around when they would arrive, and she wanted to see their relationship through. Bit had the idea of getting Leena the necklace, but wanted it to be a secret, so he secretly make it, via Anne ordering the specifications at the jeweler's shop. 

Then they started to go into gossip mode and Anne started to spew all the things Bit felt for Leena, but would never say. Embarrassed, Bit went home, to leave the girls to themselves for the night, laughing when they saw his red face when he left. 

The next day…

Leena woke up again, satisfied with everything. She now had the man she loved; a man that loved her as desperately as she loved him… He was up before her, as usual. He was watching TV, knowing Bit, it would probably be cartoons or something. She got up and went to him, memories of yesterday night still fresh…

(flashback, with a watery transition)

_"So, Anne, how long have you and Bit known each other?"_

_ "Ever since we were babies. I always pushed him around, like a bully. Now that I think back, I don't think I should have been as hard on him, but I guess it prepared him for his hermit-like life he led."_

_ "Oh, so when did you decide to become an acrobat?"_

_ "When I turned thirteen. By then Bit and I were so close that we were like brother and sister. We knew _all_ of each others secrets, and always turned to each other for help. The day I decided to leave, we both were devastated, but we moved on, and kept in touch."_

_ "So, what do you want to know about me?"_

_ "I don't think there is anything I'd like to know" this disappointed Leena. Quickly, she added "Bit has told me so much about you and how he felt towards you. It's pathetic how much he liked you, once he _(things I dare not speak)"

_"He what! So that's where it went."_

And the conversation carried on till late into the night, Anne telling Leena embarrassing things that Bit did, and Leena telling her things Bit might have not mentioned. (end flashback, with a watery transition)

She sat next to Bit, and saw that Bit was actually watching the news. She wrapped her arms around him, slackening his tense muscles. He looked at her and the worry left his face. She put her head on his shoulder and started dozing off, just enjoying the presence of the object of her affection. She could still hear the news.

"…dragon has been sited in many villages around the Fujakashi mountain range." Said the anchor. " All eye witness accounts said that the sky becomes dark all of a sudden, and a lightning storm occurs. Then a dragon like beast appears and sets the village aflame. Only a handful of people have survived, most of them in a critical state. Authorities have not released any information saying 'All information that we have does not have sufficient evidence backing any group'. When asked his opinion, the spokesperson said he thought it was the Back Draft group, but only because they are known for testing their inventions on innocent people." The little picture of a dragon changed to a picture of the Blitz team's logo (I have NO idea what hat is). "On a lighter note, the Blitz team owner, Dr. Toros has announce that the Blitz team will expand to include three new members. Naomi Fleugal from the Fluegal team has accepted a merger from the Blitz team. When asked why she decided to join it, she said 'I have had enough time being solo, and I wish to be part of something' When asked what happened with Leon Toros, she replied 'He decided to join the Circus!'. We could not locate Leon Toros for a quote, but did affirm that he has joined the circus, joining the Amazing Bandoleers. The second member to join was a previously unknown pilot named Harukichi Matsumi. She was not a registered Zoid pilot, but has a Konig Wolf. When tested for registration, she ranked as number one, and had the highest score in most fields. When Dr. Toros was asked why he accepted the pilot, he said 'You wouldn't believe me if I said it…' when miss Harukichi Matsumi was asked why she wanted to join the team, she replied 'I like the kitty'. The third member of the team is a person whose name we weren't told, just given her call sign for future battles, Little Lady. Dr. Toros declined to comment on this individual, and we could not find this individual to quote." the picture changed to the Back Draft Group's symbol and reported on their latest Zoid battle theft.

Leena nudged Bit. "Did you invite her in?" asked Leena.

"Who, Naomi or Harukichi?" he said

"Harukichi"

"No, it was all your dad's fault." he said jokingly.

"And I assume Brad got Naomi to join"

"Probably" he said.

"And Pierce was trying to get in since she left the Back Draft?"

"That's what she told me."

"Then what happened to my brother?"

"Well, it seems that Anne liked your brother, so I introduced her to him when we got here. I guess they fell in love and now they're in the same circus…" he replied.

"Strange…I never knew he liked the circus, I didn't see him there once." said Leena, in a perplexed tone. 

Back at the village near the secret lab…

Bilal, the chief of the village was surrounded by the head of three four families. One of their youths (from each family) was missing and they wanted to know where they were.

"Bilal, what happened to our kids?" asked one.

"I don't know. No one saw them since they were in the wheat patch. I guess we should go there and see if we can find any clues." The group went there and found a path that led to a nearby mountain. They reached the mountain and found a previously unknown entrance. They climbed up to it and reached the entrance. Then they saw the children. Their parents went up to hug/scold them, when they stopped, dead in their tracks. They saw their kids sitting lifeless on the ground, holes all over their body; they collapsed and wept.

What has happened here, thought Bilal. All of a sudden, hidden machine guns popped out of their secret locations. Bilal didn't have time to even realize what was happening when the guns opened fire. The guns stopped firing, going back to their holding positions. The now lifeless bodies fell back, taking positions similar to the children's. The parents tears still somehow falling.

Back at the village

He sky suddenly grew dark. A lightning storm suddenly started. Then some people noticed something coming down from the sky…. 

The next day, the Blitz team bitterly went back to the hover cargo, thusly ending their vacation. Doc called everyone to the Command Center to introduce the newest member, and to go over future plans…

"Well team, its been a nice stay, but all good things end, don't they?" said the Doc, in a cheerful voice. He had actually been lamenting the vacation, since they didn't get any income, and he couldn't blow their money on models or accessories. But it was over, so they could start battling once again.

"Well, you don't have to sound so happy about it" said Brad.

"Ya… Ok, you all know Naomi, so we don't really need an introduction, but miss Harukichi" Doc was saying, but was cut by Haru.

"You can just call me Haru" said Haru.

"Ok, Miss Haru is a new, and for the most part an unknown person" he finished.

"Actually, we met her in the circus during our stay. Say, where'd that guy go?" said Naomi.

"Um…" she hadn't thought of that.

~He travels a lot, so I'll see him once in awhile~ suggested Hiro. He had been listening to the conversation via the electronic surveillance equipment onboard.

"…Ya, he travels a lot, so I'll see him once in awhile. He went to um… the Empire for some…business." She said, trying to keep her cool. "That should about cover it" she thought to herself.

"Oh…so, where'd you get your Konig Wolf?" asked the Doc with obvious anticipation. He had been trying to get his hands on one for some time now.

"I…built it myself" she answered. It wasn't a lie. She simply converted a boulder into nano-bots and made it look like a Konig Wolf.

"Really? Can you tell me how?" said the dumbstruck Doc.

"…No?" she said hesitantly. "It was from an assembly kit I found one day. All I did was follow the instructions"

"Oh…" said the Doc in disappointment. "Well, anyway, we are scheduled to fight the Raider's team tomorrow at 3:00 PM local. That means we fight about 12 hours from now. Its battle mode 0982, and we have agreed to a limit of only 2 Zoids."

"These are the possible Zoids that they may use" continued Jamie, showing four Zoids. One was a green Rev Raptor (which was rumored to have a stealth generator that also acted as a shield), one was a pink Kit Fox (a Zoid that was made from scratch by its pilot, the only data available on it was that it had similar properties to a Command Wolf, but they were radically stronger), one was a white Gun Sniper (with a huge radar thing on its back, like the ones on spyplanes), and the last was a sand colored Gogulas (it had four CPC's, and an assortment of missile pods and assault weaponry. "I'm pretty sure that they'll use the Gogulas, but I'm not sure about the rest"

"What makes you say that?" asked Brad.

"Well, in all of the 0982 battle modes that they've been in, in the last month, they always use the Gogulas as support fire, and they rotate the rest. So far, the pattern they used was Raptor, Fox, and Sniper. But they broke the pattern last time by starting with the Fox" said Jamie

"So, who wants to go?" asked Doc

"I nominate Bit and Haru" said Naomi

"Why them?" asked Jamie

"Bit is probably the most experienced at fighting something like a Gogulas, and we've never seen Haru fight, so I guess we might as well start here" she explained.

"Yes, that makes sense, do you two agree?" said Doc

"Yes" they said in turn.

"Ok, so you two prep for battle while we…do other stuff" said Doc.

"In other words, they work and we do nothing" said Brad

"Or that…" said the Doc. 

Later that night…

"Well Liger how was the break?" asked Bit. Bit was working on the Liger to make sure it was at peak performance for the next day's battle.

~Better than I'd expected. I met someone I haven't seen in awhile~ he said

"Ya, who was that?"

~Oh…no one…~ Hiro sounded like he was daydreaming or something. Bit didn't bother him anymore. He knew when someone needed to be left alone. And Liger and Bit were best friends… he would tell him eventually

"Hello" Haru said as she walked in.

Bit turned to see her, and helloed her back. It was odd though, she was looking at the Liger and not him. It was like she was talking to the Liger.

"Oh, hello" she said again. "How's the kitty?" she asked.

"Kitty? Oh, you mean Liger. Well, he's in tip top shape, I'm just checking everything over to make sure I don't have any problems tomorrow" he said.

"He's a pretty kitty…well, I better work on my Wolf" she said. She went to where her wolf was and started to work on it. But it seemed to Bit that she was distracted and not really thinking about the Wolf.

Bit worked a little bit more until he was satisfied. He left and went to Leena's room. As he went up, he saw Haru go toward the Liger. As he rounded the corner, he thought he saw her go inside the Liger. He was about to turn back, until something in his head said "Liger's smart. He wont let anyone harm him. And maybe she just wanted to see the Liger. Everyone has curiosity…" 

After Bit left…

~Hey Hiro, how you like being stuck here?~ Haru teased.

~Sorry to disappoint you~ said Hiro ~But I actually enjoy being here. I've been here long enough to basically do whatever I want. I can spy on the team, letting me know what everyone is doing (via the electronic surveillance equipment onboard), I can see the news, watch TV, and the like. I also can secretly convert my armor units, so when we go out tomorrow, they wont be as sucky as they are now. And finally, I can watch you make a fool of yourself!~ 

Haru gave a face of hurtfulness, even though she was smiling inside. She was very awkward and sped-like among the humans; she wasn't used to these new customs or beliefs. ~Count on Hiro to make a hell into heaven…~ she finally said.

Hiro telepathetically chuckled. It was an interesting thing to do. You don't here the telepath laughing, you feel the joy the person felt from the funny. Then Hiro paused for some time, trying to think of the best way to word this. ~Haru, when you woke up, what did you plan on doing. Also, did you take me over by accident, or did you sense me?

Haru lost the smile that had formed on her face; she looked like stone now, the Haru that threatened to destroy all that opposed it. She sat down on Hiro's paw, and laid her back on the shin (I think), in a position that would mimic a sunbather on a sun chair thingy. ~Well, when I was reactivated, I downloaded the bases files, and all that I got from it were plans for these horrible weapons. When I realized that these people might actually have built some of them, my self preservation protocol forced me to leave.~ her face became gloomy ~I wasn't in full control on myself, and the protocol made my kill all those people…~ she seemed to be deeply upset by this memory, but something inside her forced to go on. Maybe it made her think it was justifiable if Hiro thought it was the best that she could have done in that situation. ~Then my life-preservation protocol made me take out that base, since it didn't want those things to be used. After I regained total control, I still didn't trust the humans, but ever since you showed me this new world, it just seems like our old one; there are good people, and there are bad people. I don't want to destroy these people anymore. I would try to save them if I could. And how I took over you…I just wanted a quick kill, well more like my protocol wanted a quick kill, so I just took the closest, and easiest to get in Zoid. Hey…is that why you tool that Liger?~

~Yes~ he replied ~It was easy to take over, but the real reason I took it was because I was just tired of looking for you and wanted to be left alone. So I went to some shop and took it over. And every time they tried to sell me, I just rejected the pilot. Then Dr Toros bought me, and I rejected everyone as usual, but when I saw Bit, something told me to let him pilot me. So I did it, and now I have you~ then he said in a dreamy tone ~It's kinda funny that you found me, even though I spent all that time looking for you…But it was worth the wait.~ He gently lifted his paw and put her in his cockpit. He closed the cockpit and she melted into him once again. If anyone was watching, he didn't want to give the secret away, now that they were all alone...All Haru did the rest of the time was express her happiness for being with her love once again. And expressing her disappointment that she wasn't his pilot.

Man is evil. All that is associated with man is evil. Man kills himself over petty things. Men are more humane to animals then they are to themselves. _Man's inhumanity to man! _ It's sickening…It was man that doomed their home world, and it will be man that will destroy this world; their weapons are too destructive. Man must be stopped before he can do anymore damage. It is Nature's will, and Nature is the ruler of all…It has been said, and it shall be done!

MerHaru woke up from its trance. Its fuel had been replenished. Now it could destroy more evil men. But first it had to destroy their only protector. Haru must die… MerHaru Ignited its boosters and headed towards where Haru was headed. Time to die, slave of man. Time to die, destroyer of worlds… 

The next day…

The Hover Cargo finally reached the battle field. It was a desert zone, with jagged rocks jutting out in random spots. Probably meteors from the Armageddon of long past. They threatened to destroy something if hit at high speeds. This particular desert was composed of three things. Sand, rock and sand. The terrain was sand with the aforementioned rocks jutting out. And due to its particular location on Zi, it had very fast winds which were heavily filled with sand. Dr Toros estimated a density of 1 kg of sand per cubic meter. That and the wind speed (about 20 km/h) was what would have made aerial assault impossible. Also, since there was so much sand, stealth units would show, so it was basically the one with the better guns and armor would win.

Everyone that wasn't fighting stayed in the Command Center, while Jamie and the Doc monitored their status.

"Liger 0 Panzer CAS complete" said Jamie. He didn't mention that the computer didn't recognize the armor as Panzer armor, but as Shruken armor. It looked the same, and the battle was about to start, so he decided not to tell Bit or the Doc about the anomaly.

"Mobilizing Liger 0 Panzer" said Bit as the Liger was dropped from the side panel.

"Mobilizing Konig Wolf" said Haru as she was launched. 

Both the Zoids nearly got stuck where they where; the sand was too soft. 

"Oh man…" said Bit

"Bit, you see that flat rock over there?" said Jamie "Go to it and stay there it should be able to take your weight. As for you Haru, just don't stop walking, that should keep you up."

"Right" they said in turn. Bit walked slowly, since he didn't want the circuits to fry, but for some reason, all the circuits were cool…

The Judge capsule came a few minutes later. It made a vacuum of air in its path that was quickly taken up by the sandy wind. Its landing was muffled; obviously, the sand wasn't a good base for it. But the ZBC was always prepared, and a large support frame from within it came down to stabilize the capsule. The Judge came out and started the formalities. (I forget what he says exactly, but the limit he said for the battlefield was a radius of 250 kilometers). "Ready…Fight!" it said, symbolically starting the battle by crossing its arms.

No sooner had the judge said fight, four emissions originating from a CPC were fired in their directions. Haru dodged them easily, but Bit didn't move an inch. When everyone could see again, Bit could not be found!

"Bit!" cried Leena, fearing the worst. 

What happened to Bit?

And what evil thing is MerHaru planning on doing?

Find out in the next chapter "The Beginning Of The End". Who will survive?

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	8. The Beginning Of The End

** Legacy of the Ancients**

**Chapter Seven: The Beginning Of The End**

  
By: Sci-Fi-Raptor 

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids, etc… 

"Bit!" cried Leen, fearing the worst.

There was a long pause as the rest of the team thought Bit had met his maker. Then all of a sudden, the communicator buzzed. "Yes Leena?" they heard from the team communication channel.

"Um…where are you?" she asked, confused by what she saw (or didn't).

"Right where I was stan…Ahh! I'm hovering in the air!" said Bit in shock. "What's going on? Panzer never had boosters!" said Bit as he noticed the boosters attached to the back of the Hybrid cannons. The cannons were pointing straight up, so that the boosters pointed straight down and he could hover.

"It doesn't…" said Jamie, almost as confused as he was. "Well, I guess that really isn't the Panzer armor…it's something called the 'Shruken'. I don't know anything else about it, all I know is that somehow, someone replaced the Panzer armor from its storage area in the CAS. Hey Doc, is this something you blew our money on while we were gone?"

"Ya, is it dad?" asked Leena

"Fortunately, it wasn't me for once…" he said

"Then who got it?" asked Bit. Then remembering the night before, said "I know, it was Haru! I saw her sneaking around the Hover Cargo yesterday! I knew something was up, even if it was a good thing."

"…It wasn't me Bit." She said in her defense. ~Look what you got me into, Hiro!~ she said angrily to Hiro telepathically. "And I wasn't sneaking around, I was just seeing the pretty kitty." ~Hey, stop calling me that~ said Hiro in an annoyed tone. The annoyance spread to Haru and was obvious as she continued. "And I wasn't anywhere near the CAS storage area. How would I have done it?"

"Then who was it?" asked the Doc rhetorically.

~It was I, Bit, I was messing around with the components while you guys were gone~ Hiro told Bit telepathically. He wanted to end this now before the Raiders found them; he could detect CPC's charging.

"What!" Bit said in surprise "Liger says it was him!"

"How'd he do it Bit?" asked Doc, thinking Bit was hearing things.

~I'll explain later~ Hiro said.

"He says he'll explain later" said Bit. He saw four bright beams heading in his direction. Instinctively, (Hiro had telepathically uploaded all the new commands and weapon specifications into Bit while they were conversing) Bit turned off the boosters and locked the Hybrid cannons into place, setting him into a brief freefall; one of the CPC emissions nearly took out one of his cannons. "Haru, lets go after that Gogulas while the other Zoid isn't here yet.

"Right" she replied. No sooner had she said that, she was barraged with an assortment of short-range sub-munitions (spread fire weapons meant for short range, like a short-range shotgun), and laser sites; one was aimed for her head. Then the mystery shooter stopped shooting, and waited for the smoke made by the sub-munitions to clear. When the smoke had cleared, everyone was surprised to find out that Haru was no longer standing there! A moment later, she appeared behind the source of the sub-munitions and bit it with her jaws. She grabbed onto something solid and started to tear it off, even though she didn't see anything. "You go on Bit, I'll handle it here."

"Great" said Bit in annoyance. Now it was just him, and that walking base! He ignited the boosters on the hybrid cannons (like how the Jager's boosters activate) and sped off to the Gogulas, running at a speed close to the Schneider's maximum. He saw more CPC emissions heading towards him, this time one by one, and in rapid succession. _How does he lose all that heat? _Thought Bit. _And how does this Shruken armor lose all its heat?_ He was forced to move in a criss-cross pattern, moving left and right every time a CPC emission was heading towards him. 

He was about 2 kilometers from the Gogulas when he heard something from the general communications channel. "I should have expected as much from the great Bit Cloud; no one has managed to get _this _close to me." said the Gogulas pilot. "And I didn't think the Panzer unit was that maneuverable, have you been holding out on us till now? Well, this has been fun, but now I will stop you in your tracks. Armageddon Total Assault!"

Bit saw a huge amount of light being emitted from the place where the Gogulas was. A few moments later, he realized that it had just fired all its missiles at him! "Ahh! What are we gonna do Liger?" asked Bit in PANIC. "Burning Big Bang (I think that's what it was called) can't take out all those missiles!" Liger didn't have enough time to respond to him; the missiles hit them and the area surrounding them. 

From the Hover Cargo, they saw a mushroom cloud form and the aftershock started to tip it backwards. Haru and her opponent were strewn away a few hundred meters from where they were fighting each other; the part that Haru bit onto was torn off, revealing green Rev Raptor missing an arm. The Judge's capsule was thrown a few kilometers away, flipping many times, as the debris of its support frame was being flung everywhere. The Judge was screaming in sheer terror "AHH! Someone get me down!!!". During this mayhem, all the loose sand that was forced into the atmosphere, and was now falling…falling like rain, a dry rain that covered the whole battlefield in seconds; it was later determined that about ten feet was accumulated. Haru managed to make her Zoid get up, shaking all the sand off. The Hover Cargo turned on its shield, which repelled the sand, throwing it all off in an instant.

"Do you…do you think he made it?" asked Jamie, fearing that they had truly lost him this time. Everyone looked where Bit was, seeing a crater with a 1-kilometer diameter. Sand was still falling there, and the finer sand was floating up like dust, making it too opaque to see through. Everyone waited in silence as the dust and sand settled, forming a great sand dune where Bit was standing. Leena broke down, unable to bear what was happening any longer; Dr Toros tried to comfort her.

All of a sudden, the dune exploded revealing a great blue fire raging underneath it. The fire died down, revealing the red fireball within. The fireball started charging in the Gogulas' direction. "RRAHH!!!!!!!" someone yelled. It was Bit's voice, but there was someone else's voice in it. _Hiro…_thought Haru. The fireball was moving really fast now, and it had a blue tail (similar to what destroyed the dune) behind him. When the fireball was 100 meters from the Gogulas (that was firing everything it had into it the whole time) it stopped abruptly. "How…how did you survive? You should be a pile of scrap!" said the bewildered Gogulas pilot. 

The blue fireball that was enshrouding the Liger was being sucked into the Hybrid cannons, leaving only the crimson fireball to cover him. While this happened, Bit replied, "I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. But I think I'll give you a taste of your own medicine first. I have a variation of the Charged Particle Cannon; I have the one and only Charged Incineration Cannon." he said, then yelled in a rage: "Fire Matrix!" 

The Hybrid cannons sucked in the last of the blue flame and fired them at the Gogulas, the boosters at maximum capacity. The backlash made him move back three times the distance the normal Hybrid cannons would make him move, even though he had his boosters on, causing him to rush forward when the force of the backlash was over, until he turned them off. What came out was both beautiful, and deadly. Two great balls of fire were spewed out. They looked like they were spheres within spheres. The internal sphere was a crimson red. It looked like a crystal, like it was a transparent solid. The external sphere was a raging blue fire. There were small purple explosions on the spheres where the sand hit the balls, leaving two trails of dirty bits of glass behind them. 

The spheres hit the Gogulas, but did not explode as expected. It actually engulfed it, surrounding it with the core of the spheres, trapping it in a burning blue-red crystal matrix. It started getting smaller, crushing all of its weaponry. Then the matrix cut the Gogulas into its individual parts (head, arms, legs, CPC's…). They separated and suddenly the balls expanded all of them (except the cockpit), so they broke into their smallest components. Then the matrixes exploded, showering the surrounding area with circuit components and chinks of chassis and armor. The cockpit landed where the former Gogulas was extremely hard, but was cushioned by the sand. Bit opened a channel to the pilot showing his face. What he saw would haunt him in his dreams. Bit was no longer that carefree blonde haired, blue eyed, youthful person. He now had crimson hair, with fire coming out of it, and he had bloodshot red eyes. "It seems that you're Zoid is the pile of scrap…" he said evilly, a cold smile appearing on his face. That was the last thing he saw before the pilot passed out, the look of horror fresh on his face. Not too long later, Bit passed out, and the Liger crumpled to the ground.

"What's going on out there?" Doc asked frantically.

"Something's happened to Bit…" said Leena. "I can feel it in my heart." she said, putting her hands on her chest; a lone tear falling down her cheek and splattering on the floor.

_HIRO!_ Haru shouted in her mind. She morphed an EMP cannon on her back and fired it at the enemy Rev Raptor until she gave it a system freeze. Then she ran to Bit and Hiro; she morphed boosters, and set them at maximum burn. When she reached them, she took Bit out and put him into her cockpit and made her Zoid go back to the Hover Cargo, so the humans could repair and reinitiate him. She then went into the Liger's cockpit, closed it and melted into it so she could wake up Hiro and see what was wrong with him. She wasn't outside long enough to see it getting dark (or at least darker than it was with the sand flying around) 

"Ahh! What are we gonna do Liger?" asked Bit in PANIC. "Burning Big Bang cant take out all those missiles!" Liger didn't have enough time to respond to him; the missiles hit them and the area surrounding them.

At the last second, Hiro went into Blazer mode; a mode that he hadn't used since he and his comrades had foiled the master plan of the Resistance. All his nano-bots (except the ones that held his data-core) started to get excited, and they generated a LOT of heat, burning everything around them, except other nano-bots and Bit. (Zoom out to show a fiery Liger 0 Shruken with a subtext saying Blazer mode. End zoom, go back to cockpit). The nano-bots that had contact with Bit went inside of him and made him unconscious. When he was asleep, they started to change him, augmenting his strength, speed, stamina and introducing chemicals that made him even more aware; he was now a Hyper Human, capable of picking up a Liger with ease, blowing up Whale Kings, and running faster than the speed of sound (given flat, hard road). It also expanded the influence of his primal instincts, making him prone to be violent and irrational; a savage animal. They did this so Bit would survive what was about to happen: Hiro's Blazer mode. The fire burned with intense fury, making a fiery barrier between the explosions of the missiles and the Liger. When all the sand that was falling on them settled, Hiro expanded the fire to get it off him and woke up Bit.

~Get that bastard~ said Hiro as he merged minds with Bit.

"RRAHH!!!!!!!" they yelled in unison as the charged towards the Gogulas, charging up a weapon that Hiro was forbidden to ever use. They flew toward the Gogulas, using the fire to push them, and harmlessly absorb the barrage of fire coming at them. They stopped close enough to the Gogulas to be able to see all the damage they would inflict upon it. 

"How…how did you survive? You should be a pile of scrap!" said the bewildered Gogulas pilot.

"I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. But I think I'll give you a taste of your own medicine first. I have a variation of the Charged Particle Cannon; I have the one and only Charged Incineration Cannon." he said, then yelled in a rage: "Fire Matrix!" He wanted to teach this punk a lesson he'd never forget, so he willed the matrix the shred the Zoid into its smallest components, and let him watch it first hand. The matrix caressed the Zoid, and broke it into its main parts. Then, with a great explosion of circuitry, armor and chassis, it strewed the former Zoid into its unforgiving grave.

When the Zoid was scrap, Bit opened a channel to the pilot, satisfied at the look of horror that he saw on the pilot's face when he opened it. "It seems that you're Zoid is the pile of scrap…" he said evilly, a cold smile appearing on his face. That was the last thing the pilot saw before he passed out, the look of horror fresh on his face when his team recovered him. 

With its threat gone, Blazer mode deactivated, and the nano-bots left Bit's system, letting his body get rid of the chemicals naturally, making him lose all his new (but never fully realized) powers. Bit became unconscious, his body in a state of shock, threatening to go into a coma. Hiro, satisfied that they had done their part, stopped struggling to stay online, and crumpled, in a robot version of unconscious… 

MerHaru couldn't see a thing in this storm. She could sense Haru was nearby, but she couldn't pinpoint her exact location. Did Haru know that her executioner was after her?

Her thoughts became distracted when she heard/saw a huge explosion some 200 kilometers away. She went straight to it, thinking that someone was ignorantly trying to fight a colony! (see chapter 1 for details) She heard more explosions as she went there.

When she finally reached the area she sensed there were two Harus, but one was missing its data-core. She headed towards the one that had its data-core and started her grand entrance, half expecting her to actually be afraid of it. She swooped down and scoped what her target looked like. As she closed the distance, she sensed something was amiss. She one Zoid, but she sensed two data-cores, and she knew both of them! One was definitely Haru, but the other one was…no, it couldn't be, he had left her by herself so long ago…

She descended right next to Haru, making a soft landing by using the hidden thrusters under her wing and other thrusters that were located all over the body to help do unconventional movements in flight. She turned on the infrared sensors in her eyes to both see in the dark, and make he more terrifying then she already was. 

"Harukichi Matsumi! Come out you traitor!" said MerHaru, her voice echoed by the rocks that were nearby, making her sound louder than it was. 

~Who's out there?~ said Haru, sure that only a fellow colony would know what her name was.

~Your executioner!~ she said ~You will now pay for your crimes!~

~Crimes? What crimes? I have done nothing wrong but try to help my fallen love!~ Haru said desperately. She had managed to stir Hiro from his shutdown, until she was suddenly interrupted by this intruder. ~And you still have not answered my first question. Who are you?~

~You have committed high treason for helping these…these humans~ she said in a tone of disgust. ~These humans are going to destroy this world, and that is against our code. That is how you have committed treason.~ she said coldly.

~No, these humans are not as you say.~ she said desperately, thinking that she was about to strike, making it impossible to save Hiro from his state. ~They have brought this world from the depths of nothingness into the joys of life. Though some of them may be bad, not all of them are; they are just like our creators! And you still have not told me who you are!~

~These humans have far more than I had anticipated; I am doing you a favor terminating you.~ MerHaru said in disgust. ~And as to who I am, I MerHaru! Jani has resurrected me from a part of you left in the lab, and tried to use me as his slave by combining me with the Zoid known as the Fist of Mercury. But his plans went…awry.~ she said, radiating an evil force as she chuckled about it.

~Then if you truly were part of me, then you would know who this colony is~ she said, not believing the evil beast before her, even though it did make sense. 

MerHaru put her claw up to analyze who this colony was. When she found out who he was, she hissed with anger and demanded to know who hurt him as such. ~Who did this to him?~ she said, her eyes burning with hate.

~He…he did it to himself. He was trying to save his human friend's life. He told me he went into Blazer mode, but didn't prepare to use it correctly.~ she said sadly.

MerHaru was obviously stunned (and hurt) by this news; her eyes turned blue. ~Then I will leave you for now. But mark my words… next time we meet, only one of us will be left.~ With that, she fully opened her great wings and flapped them, slowly ascending to flight level. Then she activated her flight boosters and went off in the distance, leaving a trail of thick gray smoke behind her. 

What happened to Bit?

And what evil thing is MerHaru planning on doing?

Find out in chapter eight. (I cant make up my mind on it, sry guys)

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	9. Shadows of the Past

** Legacy of the Ancients**

**Chapter Eight: Shadows of the Past**

By: Sci-Fi-Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids. Period.

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but I think the wait will have been worth it (I hope =\). Laterz~

"It's been too long since we've seen each other" said a voice. Bit opened his eyes and saw himself looking at some guy. He was about to reply, but the words came out of his mouth before he could do anything.

"It's only been two hours!" said Bit? His eye caught a mirror and he saw he was in a woman's body! ~Get me out of here!!!~ screamed Bit to himself. But to now avail… the words did not come out of… his mouth, and no one responded.

"Well, hours seem like years without you" he put his arms around her. "But this isn't the time for us to express how we feel" he said with a smirk. Then he looked serious. "Our informants have told us that the Rebel's army is mobilized, and it's going to attack the port tonight."

"What?!? It's to soon. The city isn't prepared for an attack!" said the person Bit was.

"I know Haru" ~Haru? Don't I know her? Yah, she's that chick that just joined us. But it cant be her. Haru looked different…~ "but don't you see? This is the perfect time to attack. Tomorrow is when we evacuate, and there wont be anything to protect the port."

"Well, I guess our unit is going to be held back to protect the ship then, aren't we?" said Haru

"Yes. But the Masters are going to leave a ship for us to join them with. So all we have to do is hold out long enough" said the guy.

"Oh Hiro, what will I do if I lose you?" said Haru ~Hiro… that sounds familiar… Oh ya, I met him at the resort… with Haru… this cant be a coincidence. But they don't look like them…~

"You wont. We are the indestructible Guardians." Then he kissed her. ~Oh God! Get me outta here!!!~ After the embrace, the two left the building they were in, and went into what looked like a pill mine. They stayed there, late into the night. For the most part, there wasn't anything amiss; all was quiet and calm. Eventually, they looked back at the city that they and their unit were protecting. 

When Haru looked back, memories of their civilization came flooding into her head. It was the last testament of their creators, a peaceful race that just wanted to survive. They were very ancient, and had very advanced technology. They were so ancient, that their planet was dying of old age; and they were starting on a long journey to find a new home. 

But there were some among them that believed that they should die with the planet; that their race had lived their time, and they were doing anything they possibly could to stop the trip. They had traitors among the highest ranks with the mainstream, but they had all been terminated, thanks mainly for special units similar to Haru's. They had lost all their aerial assault ships, and most of their land-based heavy assault platforms (thinks like Ultrasauruses on a hover platform), and they had lost a lot of their men. Now they were to make their last stand; their last attempt to wipe out their kind from history. It was believed that they had lost their most threatening and destructive weapons, but their leader was not an idiot, he could make things that their civilization couldn't even dream of. 

So here they were, in front of their creators' city (which was converted into a spaceport to transport their race to the fleet of ships waiting to start their grand journey). They continued to watch it until they heard some noise in the distance. They looked out and saw rows upon rows of foot soldiers, tanks, helicopters, a command ship, and one massive dome with a pin-like protrusion coming out of it; it was near dawn. The scheduled time for the commencement of the launching of the transport shuttles was very soon, and they had chosen the worst time to strike. There was no way that they could fight all of those enemies _and_ that monstrosity!

"HQ just gave us the command to make a preemptive strike" said Hiro "we are to take out that huge domed thing, its some kind of super-weapon. I've called our unit to meet here, so we could discuss our plan. Damn! The transports will surely get annihilated if they dare try to launch"

"Damn… what can we do?" asked Haru ~you could just go for the domed thingy and ignore everyone else…~suggested Bit, but not expecting a response. "Hmm… you know, we could just go for the domed thingy and ignore everyone else" ~Hey! That was my idea!~

"Yes" Hiro replied "that's probably the best thing to do" By now, their entire unit had arrived at their mine. "Ok, this is what we're gonna do. Colonies 001-010 will attack that super-weapon. Colonies 011-020 will attack the command ship. Once the super-weapon is destroyed, the transports will stand a good chance to make it out alive. But their other units may try to attack them, so we have to take out the command ship, so they all fall apart and are forced to retreat."

"Right" said the unit in unison.

"From what our scanners say, they have no atmospheric defense or sensors, so the best way for us to attack will be to morph into rockets and go right above them, then dive down into our objectives. That way, they wont expect us, and they wont be able to attack us until its too late. Now go!" ~ Morph? What's he talking about? ~

What happened next caught Bit unawares. Looking through Haru's eyes, he could see that everyone around him was changing… they became elongated, and their skin became gray, until its seemed like silver. Their heads became pointy until they looked like the warhead of a missile. Their bodies turned into shafts with a strange symbol on it. Their legs merged, and became the thruster of a rocket. He could see Haru's reflection on someone else, and she too was morphing into a rocket. ~ So that what he meant. And maybe that's why our Haru looks different from this one, she can change her shape! ~

All of a sudden, all the rockets launched and went high into the sky. Haru was watching the enemies, and they shrunk until they looked like they were the size of ants. Then suddenly, all the rockets stopped, and fell one group towards the super-gun, and the others to the command ship. And then they started morphing back to their human form… at least what looked like it. They were now covered in some kind of armor. Hiro was covered in red armour with glowing spikes coming out of it. There was a pair of especially long and sharp spikes on his wrists (like Wolverine's claws), his eyes were red and fiery, and his hair was spiky (like a super sayan) and was on fire. He also had dragon like wings on his back, and a huge sword secured on his back. Bit saw the reflection of Haru on it and saw that she was also different. She was covered in blue, her eyes were a deep blue color (as if she was a spice addict), and her hair was frozen, with ice crystals coming out of it. Her armor looked like it was made of ice, and she had a pair of ice-sickles on her back. All the other people had similar changes. They were quickly approaching the domed structure.

"Give it all you got guys!" said Hiro, as he shot a wave of fire/energy at the thing. Haru also shot o wave a ice/energy and the rest fired whatever they had. When they realized that they had an energy shield protecting it, they landed on it and used their weapons in an attempt to rip the thing apart. Hiro slashed through the skin, and everyone went through the puncture that he had made. They had infiltrated the complex. They headed to where they thought the command center would be.

On their way, they met some light resistance. Two men with laser/emp guns tried to stop them, and sound the alarm, but Hiro's men took them down. But one of them had been shot, and needed time to recover from it. They heard a soft and slow rumble as they walked away from the battle scene.

They finally reached the command center, and that soft rumble was like a roar. They looked out the window and saw that most of the enemy was disabled… the other team must have destroyed the command ship, and were on their way to help them. They looked around and found the whole crew of the ship there, and their leader! But he wasn't cowering like his men; he was smiling. When they got closer, he started laughing, menacingly.

"What's so funny?" asked Hiro

"That… you're here… when we're about to destroy the city with my gun!" said the leader.

"What do you mean?"

"That rumbling sound you hear?" the leader asked,  "It's the sound of our Fire Storm Generator charging. In a few seconds, it will fire, and destroy the whole city, and any chance of escape. 

"What? No! said Hiro. He and his unit started to annihilate the control center hoping that it would shut down the cannon. "This isn't going to work" he said, after destroying almost all of the center. "The only way to save the city id to cut off the Generator's energy source"

"But there's no time!" said Haru. She suddenly took Hiro's head into her arms and made a very long and loving embrace with him. "I love you…" she said, and broke the window to the outside. The gun was finished charging, and was about to fire. She heard Hiro telling the rest of the men to get out of there, and moments later, she saw near twenty rockets shoot off into the distance. ~I'm not gonna lose you, you're strong enough to take the hit~ she heard Hiro say. 

"I hope I am" said Haru to herself. By this time, she had entered the needle-like shaft of the weapon, and was trying her best to morph into something that would block the gun from shooting. Then all Bit saw was white…

            Beep…beep…beep…

            Bit woke up to the noise of a heart monitor. He opened his eyes, but he had to squint. When he could fully see, he saw the white ceiling of a hospital room and the fluorescent light that blinded him earlier. He tried to get up, but his whole body was limp. But he could feel his feet, hands and a little bit of his arms. He felt something holding onto his right hand. He looked towards it, and saw Leena sitting on a chair next to him, holding his hand. He tried to say her name, but his mouth wouldn't respond. So he just waited for her to notice him.

            MerHaru was going over all she had just learned about Bit by probing his mind. The connection happened at a long distance, so there might have been a possibility that he would have gone through her memories. She felt some of her older memories flooding back, but she had it under control. And besides, even if he did learn something personal about her, it wouldn't matter; not after what she had in store for him…

            He finally realized what was distracting her. A doctor was talking to the Doc. He could finally make out what they were saying.

            "Will he be all right doctor?" asked the Doc.

            "He should recover in a few weeks." Leena squeezed his hand a little tighter. "It seems that something was taking control of his brain's control over his motor movements, and since it left as quickly as it came, his body is trying to get used to it again. It also seems that he lost 10 pounds during the course of the battle, so you're going to have to feed him more so he gets back to his normal weight." replied the doctor. "Now, are you sure you don't know what had happened?"

            "Yes Doctor, we have no idea what happened out there. But at least we know he'll be all right" said the Doc

            "Perplexing… well, just give him all the medications I told you to give him, and he'll be back to normal in no time" said the doctor

            "All right, thank you Doctor" said the Doc

            "Since noone knows what happened out there, can I take a look at the Liger?" asked the Doc.

            "Sure" said the Doc "I'll take you there."

            "Alright dad, I'll see you later" said Leena with a smile. 

"See you later" said the Doc, and led the doctor to the bay.

No one remembered what happened out there earlier today. All they remembered was an explosion; then the Liger was in front of the totaled Gogulas. What really happened was lost to them; Haru had managed to make all the people there, except Bit forget what happened; she didn't want anyone to question what happened, but she didn't want to cause Bit any more harm.

            "Leee…" Bit struggled to say.

            Leena looked in his direction in surprise. "Hello there. You're finally awake." She said, with a smile on her face. She got up and sat next to him on the bed and stared deep into his eyes.

            "Leee…" Bit tried to say again. Leena put a finger on his lips.

            "Shhh… you need your rest. It's too soon for you to try to do anything yet. She layed down next to him and stroked his face. They just stayed there for hours, staring into each others' eyes. All Leena cared about right then was that Bit was safe. All of a sudden, his eyes went completely open, and then the heart monitor wasn't registering a heart rate…

            "Dad!" Leena screamed into the intercom.

            "Shadow!" some boy called. Bit was looking through the eyes of a small dark, dinosaur-like machine. All of a sudden, it flew into the air and merged with a nearby Zoid. ~What kind of Zoid is this…~ thought Bit. It was something black and red, and looked like a T-Rex. "I'm gonna finish you off, once and for all Van!" said the boy. ~Oh no! Not this again…~ thought Bit, remembering the absence of freedom from his last dream. By this time, Shadow had merged with the Zoid, and he could hear what the two were saying to each other.

            "We'll see about that Raven" said Van. Raven and Van were facing each other near a canyon, which they were parallel of. Neither of them was moving, trying to anticipate the other's next move. A small could of dust got picked up by the wind, and danced away. All of a sudden, the Blade Liger started running, blades fully extended and glowing.

            Raven engaged all his medium-short range weapons and started shooting like Leena at Van. Van tried to dodge all the weapons fire; he zigzagged, slowed down and sped up, jumped and twisted to get out of the way. He had managed to stay out of the way until Raven engaged his short-range weapons. He got hit head on by a red laser, and was blinded for a second. When he could see again, he found out that Raven had anchored onto him with his Zoid's hands; Raven started to pull Van towards him, jaws snapping.

            "Hahaahaaa!" laughed Raven in delight. 

            "rrr…dammit!" said Van in frustration. Then he started to try and turn his Liger around.

            "Its useless Van, you can't escape" said Raven coldly

            "Really?" asked Van. All of a sudden, one of Raven's arm anchors snapped, and Van was free to turn as much as he wanted. "That's what you get for using those weak anchors when my blades still work" sneered Van. He cut the other anchor off. This made Raven's Zoid stumble backwards, and Van used it to his advantage. He started charging up to Raven, and got a clean skull bash on Raven's underside. This caused Raven to flip over, but he managed to land on his feet. 

            Van was already starting his second charge at Raven, but he was prepared this time. He used the remnants of his arms to hold onto one of Van's legs, and his head to chomp on the other. He increased the pressure that his head was biting onto Van's leg with, threatening to crush it off. All of a sudden, Raven was hit in the head by something. He looked off into the distance and saw a lone Command Wolf, smoke coming out of its gun's barrel. 

"Having fun?" he asked Van. 

"Irvine?! I thought I'd never see you again! Thanks!" said Van enthusiastically. 

"Fool!" yelled Raven. He flung Van far away, and set up for his CPC. His legs clamped down, and vents opened up along his Zoid's spine and tail. His mouth opened wide, and a barrel came out; it started to accumulate energy, charging itself for one of the most devastating attacks known to Man. Irvine was not a fool, and knew when he was screwed, so he tried to get out of the way, but to no avail; Raven had fired, and the Command Wolf was engulfed within a ball of energy that made a crater 50 feet wide.

"Irvine!" said Van in disbelief

"Don't worry about me kid" he heard Irvine reply, "I got out with my escape pod" They saw something speeding away from the ground zero.

"phew" said Van "who would I be able to pester if I lost you?" 

"Enough!" said Raven in frustration. Raven turned to where Van was.

            When Raven looked to where Van was last standing, he was nowhere to be found. All of a sudden, his radar located a body moving at a very fast speed towards him. He did a 180-degree spin, and found Van charging him for a Strike Laser Claw attack. "Strike…"

            "Don't think I'll fall for that again" said Raven to himself. "Laser…" Raven charged at Van, probably using boosters under his feet to propel him at speeds that Bit could only dream of. Van and Raven were getting extremely close, and Bit could feel that even Shadow was getting nervous. "Claw!!!" All of a sudden, Raven added a burst of power to his boosters, and he made his Zoid jump right over Van's Liger just as they were about to collide.

            "What the hell? Where'd you go!?!" said Bit franticly, turning around and looking for Raven.

            "Right behind you" said Raven, as he unleashed a volley of short-range munitions from his wrist guns. Van had turned around enough to see the attack, and had enough time to evaded it. He started to fire his mini-guns at where Raven was standing, but just made holes into a dust cloud. "ARGH!!!" said Van in frustration.

            "I told you I wouldn't fall for that again" said Raven as he landed on Van's Liger. His Zoid used its leg claws to clap into the Blade Liger's back, and started to tear the Zoid apart with its power jaws. 

            "You dirty little!" said Van as he rolled the Liger over, and tore Raven off of him. Since Raven's Zoid was still clamped onto him, his whole back cover got torn off, and his internal circuitry was exposed.

            "You pathetic excuse of a Zoid pilot" said Raven, as he kicked the debris off his feet. He slowly made his way towards Van, ready to deliver the final blow. Bit noticed puddles form under Raven's Zoid's feet.

            "Lets se what you have to say after THIS!" said Van, as he shot his mini guns at Ravens feet. BOOM!!! Raven's Zoid was flung a few hundred feet from where it was once standing.

            "What the hell???" said Raven not believing that Van had just one-upped the one-up king.

            "That's what you get for letting your fuel leak" replied Van.

            Raven examined his ruined Zoid in disbelief, but true to his words, Raven's Zoid had lost its fuel cells; it was also missing a chunk of its rear-end. He started walking up to Van, again at the pace he last approached him, but this time because his Zoid could go no faster. Frustrated by its sluggishness, he clamped down his Zoid, and charged up the Charged Particle Cannon. This had really gotten Van's attention, and he started walking towards the opening of the canyon. 

            "Damn you!" said Raven, as Van got out of his range. He unclamped himself from the ground, but didn't stop the charge on his cannon. He turned the Zoid in the opposite direction of Van, and pointed slightly down. ~What the hell does he think he's doing?~ thought Bit. Before the realization came to him, Raven fired the CPC. BOOM!!! Raven's Zoid was flung between Van and the lip of the canyon. Where Raven once stood, was a trench that lasted for 200 feet, and ended in a devastating crater about 50 feet wide. 

            "Thanks for making it so much easier for me" said Van.

            "What do you mean?" demanded Raven. "Oh no… how could I have no seen this" said Raven as the realization dawned upon him. "If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me!" he said in fury, and set up his CPC, without the clamps.

            "No you wont!" said Van, as he stared running towards him. When he was close enough, he said "Strike…laser…Claw!", and strike laser clawed him in his midsection. It flung Raven's Zoid a few feet from where it was standing, but when the CPC fired, it forced the Zoid to go straight into the canyon. Shadow ejected, but he was not fast enough to get Raven out of there. All he could do was watch Raven fall into the abyss, cursing Van the whole time; he never heard the crash…

            "Bit?" said Leena. "BIT! Stay with us Bit! Don't scare us like last time." She had rushed to Bit's side, and helped him sit up.

            "Bit, what happened to you?" Leena's eyes were tearing up.

            "I don't know. All I remember is this dream about Hiro and Haru, and this other one about two really old people."

            "Oh, alright. But what we really need to know is what happened to you out there" she said.

            "Lemme see…" said Bit. By now, everyone had come to greet Bit, and walked in when he was about to say what happened to him while he was in the battle. He spent about one minute in deep thought. After five minutes had passed, they could hear him snore slightly.

            Brad's sweat dropped. "He fell asleep…" 

            "Yup, that's Bit for yah…" said Jamie. Everyone agreed that Bit needed his rest, and they all dispersed.

            "But I want one!" screamed a little boy.

            "You already have the whole collection!" said his mom.

            "No, I don't have one of those" he said, pointing to the sky.

            The woman gazed in the direction of her son's finger and saw it… something she hoped was just an urban legend. She let out a scream that could be heard for a few blocks. Moments later others noticed it too, and the whole city turned to havoc. But they would not expect what happened next… MerHaru crash-landed…

What happened to MerHaru?

And will Bit ever stay awake for longer than five minutes?

Find out in the next chapter "Rebirth"

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com


	10. Rebirth

** Legacy of the Ancients**

**Chapter Nine: Rebirth**

By: Sci-Fi-Raptor

Disclaimer: I own Zoids and everything related to it. Not really… sob 

Shadow never thought anything like this could happen… the mighty Raven had finally fallen. Even though there were times when Shadow hated Raven, he had always thought of him as master. Now he was free, but free to do what? All he had ever done was hurt and destroy people and their lives. He couldn't think of anything that he could do, except to get revenge on Van for killing his master. And he new exactly how he would do it: Shadow headed towards the Imperial Capital. He knew where Prozen had kept a secret weapon that had never been known, or used before. So, the former King's heir surely would not have found it by now, and knowing he was the only one left who knew about it, he would use it against Van… even though he had no idea what it was.

A few hours later, he arrived at the capital, and entered the Palace with a secret route that Prozen had secretly made. When he infiltrated the Palace, he went to the maintenance bay. There, he headed towards a locker that was labeled as scrap storage. Knowing that it was really a front for a secret special weapons cache, he opened the secret compartment that had the keypad to open the secret door. Then, with a lot of patience and skill, he typed in the fifty-two character long password that would open the door and let him in. The door opened, and he stepped through. What he saw inside put him in awe: he saw a glowing chasm of light being suspended in a transparent container. There was a sign near it that said: Core Combiner. He took a step forward, and stopped; he realized some secret compartments opened. All of a sudden, he was engulfed in some kind of static shock. He was paralyzed, and he could move at all.

"We got him Dr"

"Excellent. Bring him in to the lab… this is exactly what we need to perfect the Zoid Core of our new Zoid. Shadow's Ancient technology might just be what can make Fist of Mercury's systems work in sync."

Even while Shadow was unconscious, all he could think about was how he wanted revenge. The first thing he would do was kill his captors. Then he would go after Van. But he had learned one thing now… the only human he could trust was Raven. 

All of a sudden MerHaru felt a jolt. Then she noticed another presence. "Where are you?" she demanded. The presence would not let speak, but she could hear it laughing. Then all of a sudden she was losing control of all of her nona-bots. At first it was from unimportant places like the tail and limbs, but then it began to take over all the internal nano-bots, and finally the core-carrying nano-bots. It was slow and painful for MerHaru; she was being hurt so much that she couldn't keep her flight stable and fell into a free fall. And this take over was thorough; it made sure it deleted ANY remnants of anything that used to operate the system; MerHaru and the bits of CABAL ceased to exist. He had full control of the body now, and knew all of its capabilities, he had been observing until now, and probably would have never made a move until he remembered his master. 

But he didn't have a feel for his new body yet; he was still falling. 

We all move on with our lives, surely time heals all wounds…

It has been a few weeks since the "incident", and everyone has forgotten about (even though Haru erased all of their memories). The Blitz team had been through only one match so far, but it was a forced one; the Blitz team owed Harry money it didn't have, and Harry was infuriated that Bit was going out with Leena. He knew that there was no chance that he could have Leena anymore, so he wanted all the money he had let them borrow (cause he did it to get Leena's affection). The Blitz team didn't have the money, but they struck a deal: They were to have match, and the winner would get to have Leena, at least for a week, and none would have to pay any debts or prize money. It was originally one month, but after some intense negotiations (and Leena going ballistic and doing things that threatened the bases integrity), they shortened it to a week. So, Leena, Jamie and Brad (at Harry's insistence) fought against Harry and his bucket of bolts (~ow! You son of a—alright u trash heap, ill stop calling you that. (Under my breath) bucket of bolts. _Hey, I heard that!_).

Naturally, Leena dumped all of her ammo in less then one minute, but surprisingly, she made direct hits: Harry's whole team was decimated! Harry cried, and left Leena alone since then, but was still the team's friend. Last time I heard, he met with this nice hillbilly type person, who he was supposed to have fallen deeply in love with.

But something disturbing has happened. Bit refuses to step into a Zoid, and the Liger is unwilling to fight. No one, not even Haru, knows why…

At this moment, Jamie and Pierce were practicing outside. Jamie let Peirce have a handicap of 10 hits, and the first to reach twenty, or knock the other player out first would win. Well, that's what they were supposed to do.

"Bit, did you see Jamie?" asked Pierce.

"Ya, I think I saw him in his room. Why?"

"We were supposed to fly with each other today"

"Oh. Well, have fun" he said, and went off to steal Leena's cookie.

She made her way to Jamie's room. She opened his door and found him listening to the Japanese music video of "Simple and Clean". "What are you doing?" she asked.

"I'm learning the technique that Utada Hikaru uses to wash her dishes" he replied. 

"What are you talking about? She did a song for Kingdom Hearts, not about washing dishes…"

"Uh huh. Just come and see." True to his word, there was Utada Hikaru singing the song and washing dishes. "What has the world come to" she said as her sweat dropped. Then she pulled him by the ear and took him to the maintenance deck. "You can watch her clean dishes some other time" she muttered.

"But it was getting to the good part" said Jamie in a disappointed tone.

"SHE'S WASHING DISHES!" 

"You are so gonna lose" said Pierce.

"You're talking to the one and _only_ _W_ild _E_agle, Little Lady"

"I told you to stop saying that! First you start calling me that, and then you somehow make that my call sign! I'm gonna tear you apart you little squirt!" she said in rage. Then she said under her breath "and I'm gonna rip that stupid author apart if he makes anyone say the one more time" (uh oh… _what do you mean uh oh?_ Good thing I got that woman proof armor I saw on TV before. OW! Stupid infomercials…)

"Lets see you try" said Jamie, and they both launched. Jamie was in his Raynos, and Pierce was in her Storm Sworder. 

"I'll just let you know one thing: My Storm Sworder is custom made, and it has things that your Raynos could only drool about. Hey where'd you go?"

"Right behind you tuts!" said Jamie. He had somersaulted behind her while she was talking, and now had her 6 fully exposed; he fired two missiles.

"Oh no you don't!" she said. She knew these missiles; they worked by trying to do a pincer attack. They would go on either side of her and attack. But she had other things in mind. She let the missiles catch up until they were right next to her. Then, right before they wer about to collide into her, she put her nose up, and rapidly gained altitude; the missiles collided, and she was almost engulfed in their flame.

"Phew! That was…" she was cut off by Jamie tearing at her with his gun.

"I've told you this so much… always watch your six!" he said as he zoomed past, laughing the whole way. She sustained massive damage, and her computer recommended ejecting, but she wouldn't lose to this… this pipsqueak! She flipped a switch, and two hidden compartments opened on the outside of her ship, and two massive booster thingys came out. She flipped another switch and she accelerated to mach 4. She caught up to Jamie in a few seconds, and started to tear up his back.

"What the…"

"Always watch your six!" she said sarcastically, and started laughing like Leena.

"Jeez… she's broken you" said Jamie. His sweat dropped when he heard her say: "I am Pierce! Her me roar!!!"

"Well, the score is tied, 19 all. Next shot is game."

"I know" said Jamie. He was starting to worry. He could easily go to Mach4, but he was only willing to use it when it the danger was life threatening. He knew his Raynos wasn't built for that speed. Pierces Storm Sworder was made for speed, so he was sure Pierce knew what she was doing… he was so wrong.

Pierce was setting up for another run. She had her sites set on Jamie's six. And she was so far away, he would never know until it was too late. "hahahahaa… heheheheee… ahahahahahaaa!" thought Pierce as she got closer to Jamie, and victory. She landed one well-fired sniper shot and won the game. She zoomed past him and was exhilarated by the win she had been longing for since she first fought him.

Then everything went wrong.

All of a sudden her Zoid caught fire. Her computer automatically ejected her… but nothing happened. All Pierce could think about was that she was going to die, and how this could have happened. Then it hit her. She had damage, and she went through Jamie's sonic boom not once, but twice while she was at mach4. The fear took control, and she went frantic.

"Pierce, get out of there!" yelled Jamie.

"I'm trying" she said. Jamie could tell she was crying. "Jamie, I cant eject!" 

Off in the distance, something was stirring. The crowd moved back when they saw it get up. But what they saw wasn't what should have been there. Instead of the great Fist of Mercury, there was a small organoid. It opened its eyes and yawned. Then its eyes burned red. It looked around, and assessed its situation. Satisfied, it stopped moving. One of the few survivors swore that it had a grin on its face… 

"Oh noo…no no no noo. This cant be happening" thought Jamie; he went to mach6. "Hold one Pierce! I'm coming to get you!"

By now, the Storm Sworder's thrusters had failed, and the special thrusters had blown up. She was still flying from the momentum she had, but she was slowing down fast, and there was no way to keep her up.

Jamie finally reached Pierce, and matched speeds with her.

This is the end… I'm gonna die. "Jamie! I know I've been a pain to you, and I know we didn't get to spend all the time together that e should have, but… I love you! And I always want you to remember that…" BOOM! An explosion of her Zoid cut her off.

"Pierce!" Jamie screamed. She thinks she's dead. And she'll die if she keeps thinking that… His Raynos had matched speed with the Storm Sworder, and had used its feet to latch onto it. At least he didn't have to worry about the Sworder losing any more speed. Jamie opened his cockpit and somehow opened Pierce's and went inside. He found her unconscious, and her head was bleeding. "Oh no…"

Jamie took her in his arms and BOOM! The cockpit exploded… 

Oh no… Did Jamie and Pierce really die?

And what is Shadow up to?

Find out in the next chapter, "Rabbit Run"

Here come Peter Cottontail…

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 

Ok guys, you don't have to worry about Fist of MercuryMerHaruShadow changing who they are anymore. I was just building up Shadow, but I had to have Haru know that there was a third colony out there. 


	11. Rabbit Run

** Legacy of the Ancients**

**Chapter Ten: Rabbit Run**

By: Sci-Fi-Raptor

Disclaimer: I own Zoids and everything related to it. Actually I own the world! Not really… sob

            "Oh noo…no no no noo. This cant be happening" thought Jamie; he went to mach6. "Hold one Pierce! I'm coming to get you!"

            By now, the Storm Sworder's thrusters had failed, and the special thrusters had blown up. She was still flying from the momentum she had, but she was slowing down fast, and there was no way to keep her up.

            Jamie finally reached Pierce, and matched speeds with her.

            _This is the end… I'm gonna die_. "Jamie! I know I've been a pain to you, and I know we didn't get to spend all the time together that e should have, but… I love you! And I always want you to remember that…" BOOM! An explosion of her Zoid cut her off.

            "Pierce!" Jamie screamed. _She thinks she's dead. And she'll die if she keeps thinking that…_ His Raynos had matched speed with  the Storm Sworder, and had used its feet to latch onto it. At least he didn't have to worry about the Sworder losing any more speed. Jamie opened his cockpit and somehow opened Pierce's and went inside. He found her unconscious, and her head was bleeding. "Oh no…"

            Jamie took her in his arms and BOOM! The cockpit exploded…

            Brad had been watching the whole time, and fell to his knees when he saw it explode. He could swear his saw Jamie with that cocky, I'm the ruler of this universe, grin on his face. After he stopped crying, and regained his composure, he went back to tell everyone the bad news…

            "So Brad" Leena said in a highly abnormally cheerful voice, "Why'd you call all of us here?" Brad had told everyone to meet him in the bridge of the Hover Cargo.

            Before he could even say a word, he started crying again. He hugged Leena and said, "I'm so sorry. I wanted to help, but he was so far away…"

            Blushing that Brad was this close to her, she said, "Brad, what are you talking about? You don't cry, and you're really scaring me right now."

            "It's Jamie and Pierce"

            "What about them Brad" Leena said in a shaky voice. She had an inkling to what it was, but she couldn't believe it.

            He told them what happened. "And before I knew it, the cockpit blew up"

            Leena was glad that Brad was holding on to her… she became very weak suddenly, and started bawling. Everyone else just stood in silence, finding it hard to believe that they had lost Jamie.

            "He didn't die. It's Jamie! Come on… I'm going out there to bring him back" said Bit.

            "Bit, let it go. We lost him" said the Doc, finding it hard to believe that he had lost another of his loved ones.

            "No! He didn't die!" said Bit, tears rolling down his face. Then he sprinted to the maintenance bay and left with the Liger.

            Haru was about to follow, but Hiro told her to stay back… this was something that they had to do alone.

            Bit and the Liger, who was in the Jager mode, sped off to the crash site in silence. When they finally reached there, they looked in awe. The two Zoids were totaled, but they could be fixed up. But it would take a really strong person to make it out alive from crash like that. The two Zoids were mangled into each other, and there was extensive damage to the areas near the Storm Swoder's cockpit. Bit just stood there, watching the burning Zoids, until he finally admitted to himself that there was no chance that he was alive. He turned away from the smoldering mess.

            He slowly walked back to the Liger.

            ~You really loved him, didn't you?~

            "Ya… he was like the kid brother that I never had. I just can't believe that he would die from something like that…" said Bit, reminiscing all those times Jamie had almost crashed into the ground, but then somehow managed to get his Zoid flying again.

            ~No one is invincible, not even Jamie. But I don't think you should be leaving him for dead just yet. Look over there~ the Liger pointed its head a little bit away from the crash site. The golden afternoon sun was glaring into his face, but he could see it after he squinted.

            "That son-of-a-bitch! He made it!" said Bit in extreme happiness. What he saw was a discarded parachute, most likely Jamie getaway instrument. Bit boarded the Liger and brought them closer to it. To his disappointment, no one was there, but there was the next best thing.

            "Tracks!" said Bit. "And they lead to… there!" he pointed towards the Blitz team base. "He's probably on his way already! But why didn't we see him while we were coming here?"

            ~Surely time will tell~

            "Ya"

            They followed the trail for a few seconds and saw that it ended abruptly. Bit and the Liger scanned the ground. They saw footprints of other people, and the trail of a hover platform. "Uh oh… I think they got caught" said Bit in a worried tone. He looked in the direction of the trail of the platform, and deduced that it headed towards the Aroché mountain chain. "Dammit! I think that some bandits caught them"

            ~Indeed. Maybe we should go back and tell everyone what we found?~

            "No, we don't have time for that. If we go back, this trail will probably be gone, and the bandits will be to far away to catch anyway!"

            ~I agree. Lets make haste!~ The Liger initiated his boosters, and accelerated to about 100 meter per second (about 220 miles per hour).

            "Oh noo…no no no noo. This cant be happening" thought Jamie; he went to mach6. "Hold one Pierce! I'm coming to get you!"

            By now, the Storm Sworder's thrusters had failed, and the special thrusters had blown up. She was still flying from the momentum she had, but she was slowing down fast, and there was no way to keep her up.

            Jamie finally reached Pierce, and matched speeds with her.

            _This is the end… I'm gonna die._ "Jamie! I know I've been a pain to you, and I know we didn't get to spend all the time together that e should have, but… I love you! And I always want you to remember that…" BOOM! An explosion of her Zoid cut her off.

            "Pierce!" Jamie screamed. _She thinks she's dead. And she'll die if she keeps thinking that…_ His Raynos had matched speed with the Storm Sworder, and had used its feet to latch onto it. At least he didn't have to worry about the Sworder losing any more speed. Jamie opened his cockpit and somehow opened Pierce's and went inside. He found her unconscious, and her head was bleeding. "Oh no…"

            Jamie took her in his arms and BOOM! The cockpit exploded…

            But fortunately for Jamie, the cockpit door caught his parachute's release string. Since they were going so fast, and the door was open, the door tore off because of the air resistance, and took Jamie with it. Jamie held onto Pierce long enough to get her out of the cockpit, but she slipped out of his hands, and was falling in a direction away from him. He desperately twisted his body to aim himself towards Pierce, to try and intercept her. After a little use of skill, and a whole lot of luck, he finally reached her. He took his parachute off and put it on Pierce. Then he put himself in such a way, so that when he released the chute, he wouldn't fall off. Then he let it go. He looked in the direction of the abandoned Zoids, and saw that they were losing altitude. The wind was making his eyes teary, so he left them closed his eyes for a bit. Soon he heard the explosion of the Zoids crashing into the ground. He looked down into the direction of the crash, and saw the smoldering mess. _At least we can repair them_ he thought to himself.

            After a few minutes, he finally touched down. He quickly looked over Pierce, and was sure that she would survive if she could get medical attention. He knew that she was massively injured, but they had to get back to base ASAP, so he would have to carry her the whole way. _Someone's bound to find me, right?_ thought Jamie to himself again.

            Jamie had been walking for some time now, and his body was getting tired. Normally, he could walk until forever, but not only was he injured, he was carrying Pierce and he was no macho man… He sat down and decided to rest for then. He carefully put Pierce on the sand, sure that it was soft enough for her to lie down on. He looked down into her face and brushed her hair away. She looked as beautiful as ever. That Pierce, she looked so innocent when she was sleeping like that. He gave her a short kiss and lay down on the ground next to her.

            A few minutes later, he heard the soft hum of a cargo transport. Hoping he could hitchhike, he got up and looked for it. It was heading straight for them, but he wanted to make sure they noticed them; he was jumping up and down like someone kicked him in the but bone.

            The transport finally reached them, and stopped. Some came out, but Jamie automatically knew that he didn't want to hitchhike with them: they had Back Draft insignias on their uniforms. _Oh man… I thought it couldn't get any worse._

            "Well," said one of the agents "what have we here?"

            "We were in a crash, and we were hoping that we could get a ride to the nearest hospital" said Jamie calmly. _Maybe, just maybe, we can get away with this_ he thought to himself.

            "Who's we?" he said.

            "Me and my g- friend" he replied. _I don't want go give him any ideas_ he thought. He pointed to where Pierce was sleeping.

            "Oh… that looks bad" he said. "Alright, we'll take you. But we can only take you as far as the outskirts of the city. We have a delivery here that cant wait."

            "Thank you so much" Jamie said. A few men came out and with Jamie's assistance, they all carefully put Pierce into the sick bay. They all boarded the vehicle, and were one their way.

            "So," asked Jamie "what are you guys transporting?" he asked. He was sure that these Back Draft members weren't the crazy evil ones he was used to.

            "Well, we don't really know. All I know is that some spy of ours thinks he found something that was stolen from us, but sent a sample back to base to be sure. He has it from something called a Liger."

            "Was it a white Liger?" Jamie asked.

            "Yah, how'd you know?" he replied

            "Well, I remember seeing it on TV one day" said Jamie, lucky that he caught himself. "Is its pilot that guy that Leyon wants so bad?"

            "Yah, but its not Layon that's after him. Its some top-secret organization, that very few people know about, that's interested in him. Once they are sure, they'll get him, no doubt. And I think that they're 100% sure anyway, so they'll probably go after him right after we deliver this."

            "Didn't Leyon try to do it, but never succeed?" asked Jamie, trying to learn as much as he could. This new threat seemed very dangerous.

            "Yah, but Leyon is an idiot. I mean, sure he's real smart and all, but he's an idiot when it comes to messing with people. He's one of the very few people that got to where he is by pure skill." By this time they had reached the outskirts of the city, and the Back Draft members had to drop them off.

            "Thanks a lot guys!" said Jamie in extreme gratification.

            "No problem. Just don't tell anyone what I told you. I forgot that this was a top secret mission." Said the guy that had been talking to Jamie.

            _I guess they really are all idiots_ though Jamie. "Goodbye" he yelled, and waved his arms until they couldn't be seen anymore.

            Jamie quickly went to the hospital and checked Pierce in. Once he was sure that she was safe, and getting the proper treatment, he called the base. 

            "JAMIE! You're alive!" said Leena when she answered the vid-phone. Her eyes were getting teary, and she looked like she was about to cry.

            "Yes I am… but I have something important to tell Bit" he said quickly.

            "Bit isn't here right now, he went out to look for you…" she replied.

            "What! Oh no. His life may be in danger. Some new part of the Back Draft organization is after him. Try to warn him, 'cause they sound dangerous." He said.

            "We can't. He left communication range a few minutes ago…" she said, a gloomy face, fear overcoming her.

            "Oh man! I just saw the Jager go right past us. And he's going straight in the direction of the Back Draft that got us here" he said in desperation.

            "What Back Draft?" asked Leena.

            Jamie explained everything that happened to them, starting from what happened out in the sky, to until where he was right then. Everyone aboard was there when he explained it, and they decided that Bit was most likely to be headed into a trap. "I guess we should go after him. But our Zoids can't cover that much distance without recharging" said Jamie.

            "Well, someone has to stay with Pierce, just in case something happens to her, so you'll have to stay back" said the Doc.

            "But Jamie would be the best person to track and find Bit" said Haru. "I think he should go, and I can take his place" she suggested. _I'm supposed to stay out of this anyway. And if they do run into something, Hiro and Bit could probably handle it._

            "I don't know…" said Jamie.

            "Don't worry" said Brad. "I'm sure Pierce will come back as healthy as ever when we get back."

            "Alright"

            "Ok, but we still have one problem" said the Doc. "The Hover Cargo cant get there way too fast by land…unless"

            "Unless what?" everyone said or thought.

            "Unless we detach the CAS and Catapult. (that big disk thingy that would be the equivalent of the shell of a snail) We can just store all the Zoids in the cargo hold, and detach it. That way, we can go to speeds near a Rev Raptor."

            "Really?" asked Jamie "Why didn't you tell me about it before?" he said in disappointment." 

            "um… I forgot" said Doc. Jamie's sweat dropped followed by everyone else.

            "Alright. So these are our options then. We go without the CAS and Catapult, and not have the ability for Bit to change armor, or we can keep it, and be very far behind" said Brad.

            "Well, he is going fast, and the longer we wait, and he farther he gets, the harder it will be to find him" said Jamie.

            "Alright, I guess we'll have to detach it" said the Doc. Everyone went to the maintenance deck and moved their Zoids to the cargo hold. Then, and hidden crane came out of the case and proceeded to take the shell off. "Now, where do I put it again?" thought the Doc. "Oh yeah! I put it where Bit puts all his junk". He put it in there, crushing all the weapons and components Bit had salvaged and revamped. 

            "Lets go!" the Doc said excitedly. He slowly accelerated the lighter Hover Cargo, and eventually reached the speed of a Rev Raptor at full speed. Soon, they arrived at the town Jamie and Pierce was in, and switched Jamie for Haru. Then Jamie went to the Command Center and tried to figure out where Bit was. He told the Doc what general direction he was heading, and would periodically change their heading to the direction Jamie triangulated that Bit was most likely to be heading to.

            "Wow" exclaimed Jamie. "I never thought the Hover Cargo could go this fast."

            "Well it was a modification I made a while ago" said the Doc, and then in a softer voice "I just kinda forgot about it till now…"

            Agamemnon pulled up the cargo vehicle up to the lab's dock. He initiated the automatic unloading sequence and left the vehicle. He headed towards his temporary quarters until his vehicle was prepped, and ready to ship its new load of cargo. He entered his quarters and found it surprisingly tidy; almost all of his other quarters were pig stiles, and badly needed maintenance. 

            This was like a first class room compared to what he usually got. It had a lot of floor space, a queen sized bed, electric stove, heater and A/C, and an adequate bathroom, one that didn't have feces all over the floor. _This must be some really important place if they spend so much time on it_ thought Agamemnon. For a few seconds he felt like king; how wrong he was.

            A few seconds later an announcement went out for him: "Agamemnon de Argos is wanted at the service desk. Can Agamemnon de Argos promptly go to the service desk."

            _Great _Agamemnon thought. He quickly went to the bathroom to wash his face with water, since he felt a little sleepy from long haul. He looked at himself in the mirror, and saw his olive skin completion. He was in his mid 20's, and hoping that his years of loyalty and service would one day land him a job that he could be proud of; at least not have to use so much energy on. Then the thought occurred to him: _Maybe I'm getting a promotion. Maybe rooms like this are for people with good jobs, and I'm gonna get a promotion! I knew all that hard work would pay off_. He quickly tidied his hair, and headed to the service desk.

            "Hello" Agamemnon said to the person manning the desk. "I was called to come here?"

            "Yes" the person replied. The servicemen gave him a securi-card, and an official looking envelope. "Your orders are in there."

            "Thanks" said Agamemnon with uncontained glee. He slowly walked away and then started skipping away, and randomly hugged a woman. She blushed, then slapped him in the face, and threw him to the ground. "Hmp!" she said as she walked away.

            _Man… feeling good isn't all its cracked up to be_ thought Agamemnon. The serviceman was watching this and shook his head. "And he was a good one too" he thought

            Bit and Hiro had been running for quite some time now, but the Liger wasn't supposed to last this long without a break, so Hiro told Bit that he needed to recharge himself.

            ~Bit, I need to stop now. My boosters are wearing out~

            "Sure buddy" said Bit.

            Bit could see a store coming up, so he cut off the thrusters, and let the Liger run the rest of the way. When he reached there, he parked the Liger nearby, and let it rest and cool down. Then he went inside.

            The store was in a pretty senseless place. They were in the desert, in the middle of no-where, and it looked like no one had been there for some time. Bit cautiously waked up to the register, half expecting the rotten wood floor to break.

            "What can I do you for" said a voice

            "Who said that?" said Bit

            "I did" said a little white rabbit. Bit looked down, and lo and behold, there stood a little rabbit, busy munching a fresh carrot.

            "What the…" said Bit, taken unawares be the strange sight.

            "Well, are you going to stand there all day?" asked the rabbit, this time in an impatient tone.

            "Um… do you have any water?" asked Bit, feeling foolish asking a rabbit for water.

            "Lets see…NO! This is a gooper-blogdinger store" said the rabbit

            "gooper-what dinger?" questioned Bit.

            "Glooper-BlogDinger. You know, it activates a person's Hyper mode?"

            "… you lost me…" said Bit.

            "You humans are hopeless!" said the rabbit. "Here, follow me" said the rabbit. It ran out of the store, as if a dog was chasing after it. Bit ran as fast as he could too, since he was losing track of the rabbit, still feeling foolish that he was talking to a rabbit. Suddenly the roof of the store caved in. "What the…" said Bit. Suddenly, a support column was about to fall on him. Normally he would dodge it, but the rabbit said something before he did: "Use the Force Bit… the Force of your Hyper Mode."

            "What are you talking about?" said Bit. But it was too late for him to run away, so he tried to keep the column from falling on him. But he was too weak, and he was being crushed.

            "IF YOU WANT TO LIVE, USE YOUR HYPER MODE!" yelled the rabbit.

            "I don't know what you're talking about" said Bit, frustrated that the rabbit was telling him to do something that he had never heard of, and desperate, since he was being crushed.

            "Feel inside of yourself. It's in you. All you have to do is tell it to save you, and it will."

            "Fnck you!" said Bit, anger and fear taking control of him. But then he felt a third emotion… or lack of. He felt this emotion that was calming him down. He figured that might be what the crazy rabbit was talking about, so he gave it a shot. (I think it was Bit who was really crazy =P ~How would you feel if a talking rabbit just talked to ya?~ I wouldn't, 'cause I don't talk to rabbits! ~…~)  He tried to amplify the emotion, and then he calmed down. The support column started to weigh less and less, until it felt as light as a feather; he threw it off. He felt changed. He looked at his right hand and was surprised to see the picture of a rabbit on the back of his hand. He also felt warm, and realized that he was engulfed in flames, but he didn't feel like he was burning. 

            "What the…" said Bit, awestruck by what had just happened to him. He looked in front of him, and saw the rabbit there, but this time it didn't have a carrot in its mouth, it had his wallet! "You low down piece of…" before Bit could finish, the rabbit dashed off, so he gave chase. He was surprised that he could keep up with the rabbit, but it was going faster and faster, and Bit tried his best to catch up to it. He then noticed something very peculiar; it seemed to him that he was going at a speed near a Lightning Saix! He abruptly stopped, and the rabbit did too, and found himself in front of the collapsed store again.

            "There, you got your Glooper-BlogDinger. That'll be ten minutes from your future" said the strange rabbit. He no longer had his wallet in his mouth, and Bit realized it was back in his pocket.

            "Um… what do you mean?" said a very confused Bit. By now, he didn't feel as if there was a threat, so the fire gradually subsided, and he was back to his goofy blonde haired self.

            "You shall see… But for now, be proud. You have made your first rabbit run. If you ever need to go into Hyper mode again, just do this: Hubba Ba Loo!(it went on two legs and had its arms outstretched) And howdy do! (it went on one leg, and had his… paws where its free leg's knee was) Musty Brawns and Tumbucktoo! (It was on two legs again, and was twirling like a ballerina) Kick 'em in the wristband Roo Roo Roo! (it flipped in the air, and had its left paw over its right)"

            "Kick 'em in the wristband Roo Roo Roo? Um…NO!" said Bit, amused by the funny dance it just did, but even more confused. The rabbit's sweat dropped.

            "Just try to recreate what happened when that column was about to fall on you then…"

"Ok, but can you tell me what happened to me?"

"Just ask that stupid person in front of you" said the rabbit. Bit was about to ask him what he meant by that, but he had already disappeared. Then, all of a sudden, the whole store melted away to show an abandoned building that looked like it had been destroyed decades ago. 

"Whoa… that was weird" Bit was about to head back to the Liger, until he saw a familiar face in front of him.

Hiro waited while Bit was exploring the abandoned building. He started acting strange when he go to the back of it, and all of a sudden, he looked like he was being crushed by something, but there was nothing there. Then, he went into Hyper mode! "That's not supposed to happen" thought Hiro. He took of a chunk of the Liger body, and transformed into the first human he could think of, which happened to be the body he had taken when he met Bit at the Springs Resort. That part of him rushed off to Bit, while the rest remained as still as a sleepy Zoid.

When he got to Bit, he had already come out of Hyper mode, and was talking to something that wasn't there. Then he turned and faced him.

"AHHH!!!" shrieked Bit, not expecting Hiro to come out of nowhere. "DON'T DO THAT!!!" he said, almost peeing in his pants.

"Sorry…" Hiro Mumbled.

"Hey, what are you doing here anyway?" asked Bit.

"Duh, we were out here searching for Ja-" he didn't catch himself in time.

"Oh. My. God… that wasn't just a dream. And I bet Haru is in on this with you too, isn't she?" said Bit

"Of course" he said defensively "she's my girl"

"That's weird… a Zoid going out with a person. Oh ya, you two aren't people, you're like shape shifters or something."

Obviously Bit had somehow found out the duo, and all he could really do was clarify what he probably didn't know. He was his BEST friend, after all. "Well', we're acutely a complex structure of nano sized robots that work as one entity, which can shape-" he realized he had lost Bit.

"You were saying?" said Bit, pretending he understood. Hiro's sweat dropped.

"Yah, we're shape shifters…"

"Don't worry buddy, your secret is safe with me."

"Really… would you mind if I took a different form then the Liger?" asked Hiro

"Sure, what do you have in mind?"

Hiro just grinned. Then his face melted, and then his whole body melted, and the blob of slime he became headed towards the Liger. The Liger had also been melting by this time, and was changing shape. It started to stretch and shrink at the same time. Finally, it was done transforming. It was a…

"Molga?" said Bit, his sweat dropping. "You wanted to be a Molga? You're sad"

"What? I've always wanted to see what it was like to be a Molga" said Hiro.

"You have issues…"

"Don't judge yet. You might like what you see" said Hiro. He opened the cockpit and let Bit in. Then he streaked across the desert, at speeds near a Lightning Saix's full power.

"You… mother…fu-" Bit was cut off as Hiro accelerated even more.

~WhooHoo!!!~

Agamemnon happily skipped his way to executive room 33-A; this lab's commander. "This must be really big if the commander wants me" thought Agamemnon. Agamemnon took the elevator to the 33rd floor. But instead of going up, he went down; this lab was exclusively underground, with one floor at ground level to make it seem harmless. It was also located near a canyon, which ran for a few more miles down, and stretched for a few hundred miles. When he finally reached the floor, the door wouldn't open. At first he was startled, but then remembered that this was a top-secret level, and only those with a class Z Securi-Card were allowed down here. He put his card into a slot that appeared, and then he was cleared. But the door didn't open still. At first he thought he did it wrong, but then noticed that something was happening; a gas was coming into the elevator. Instinctively, he tried everything he could to get out, but nothing happened. The gas finally reached him, but nothing happened. Then the floor opened, and he fell!

When he finally landed, he was amazed at what he saw. There was a huge chamber with a lot of scientists doing many different types of experiments and such. Then a husky looking black man came up to him. He was wearing a black leotard with a black steel falcon's foot where his left breast was. He looked like he could kill a person just by looking at him, that's how intimidating he was.

"Sorry about that. We would have warned you about that if we could, but we didn't want you to tell anyone about the elevator's secret ability" he said.

"And what _is _that ability?" asked Agamemnon.

"Full alien particle removal. It basically cleans you up, kills all germs and gets rid of any dust or anything like tat you might have on you. Its because this place is sensitive, and foreign agent like dust or germs can really interfere with what those egg-heads over there do.

"Whatever muscle-head" one of the scientists hollered, and a few of them chuckled. "I'll get you back Smith!" he replied. "That's just Smith, he always has to say something funny."

"…ok" said Agamemnon, thinking they were all nuts.

"Well, lets get going. The boss really wants to talk to you" he said. He escorted him into a long, dark corridor. "By the way," he said "my name is Jamal" and offered his hand.

"Agamemnon" Agamemnon said, and shook it. "Do you know what I'm in for?"

"Sorry," Jamal apologized "all I know is that you did something, and the boss wants to talk to you about it."

"Okay" Agamemnon thought. Then it hit him. He did do something that wasn't normal, he helped that guy and his girl he thought. And he also blabbed to them everything he wasn't supposed to. If they found out, he could be fired, or worse. He heard about some of the things that the Back Draft did to traitors, and he certainly never wanted to be in their shoes. All of a sudden, he got uncomfortable, and Jamal noticed.

"You all right?" he asked.

"Yeah, just a bit nervous"

"Don't worry 'bout it" he said and laughed. He laughed and gave a supportive arm around him. "The boss is cool, and he'll probably like you"

            "I wish I could say the same" thought Agamemnon. They reached the end of the corridor.

            Shadow finally found it… the final resting place of his former master. He turned into an energy bolt and sped to its merciless depths…

Who is this commander, and what does he want with Agamemnon?

What is Bit and Hiro headed for?

What is Shadow up to?

Why did a talking rabbit talk to Bit?

When will I stop asking questions?

Find out these and more, in the next chapter "Never More"

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 

Sorry about the story getting a little out of hand, but I'm finally setting up the end of it (oh no! says the crowd. Yahoo! Says someone. Everyone gives him a death stare and he shrinks and say Oh no! in a teensy weensy voice). And yes, Hyper made has some Super Saiajin roots.

Umm… I have no idea why I used a rabbit. Don't ask. All I'll say is that it is a character we'll meet again in the future.


	12. Never More

** Legacy of the Ancients**

**Chapter Eleven: Never More**

By: Sci-Fi-Raptor

Disclaimer: I own Zoids and everything related to it. Actually I own the world! Not really… sob

            "So you're Agamemnon" said a shadowy figure. His voice was as cold as ice, and he sounded unhappy. Agamemnon was all alone with this man, Jamal had left him right before he entered the Boss' room.

            "Yes…sir" he managed to squeak. He couldn't see anything of the man, except the twinkle of the ceiling's light in his eye. He just sat there, staring at Agamemnon. He finally stirred.

            "I would like to congratulate you on your last haul." said the ghoul. "We have received the package intact, and have analyzed it promptly after it was received."

            "Thank you sir" Agamemnon managed to say, thinking that he wasn't going to get into trouble for what he did earlier.

            "But there seems to be a problem" said the man. "It seems that you had picked up a hitch hiker en-route to our base, didn't you?"

            Oh man! "Um… yes sir. But I only did it because they were in bad need of medical care. I couldn't just leave them there."

            "Yes true" said the man. "And I may have done the same" but he leaned his head forward now, exposing his face to the light. "But you helped one of our sworn enemies"

            "What? But I didn't know!" said Agamemnon. Now I'm gonna get it. Not only did I get off track, but I've _also _become a traitor.

            "Your booklet shows that any member of the Blitz team is to be taken captive at all times, as per the instructions of Dr. Layon" he read from the Back Draft member's booklet. Then he showed him the pictures of the team. It wasn't an updated copy, so only the Doc, Leena, Brad and Bit were shown. "This person" he pointed to Jaime "Is the person you let go of. Dr. Leyon will not be pleased."

            "But I had no idea…"

            "It doesn't matter. You have violated law, so you shall be put into jail for 5 years." All of a sudden, clamps from the armrest of the chair held Agamemnon's arms down; he was handcuffed to the chair.

            "Five years! I've worked hard for this organization, and I've been one of the best haulers that you have around. Dammit, I've been employee of the month for the last twenty and a half months!"

            "It doesn't matter anymore. You have violated rules, and you shall be punished" said the man coldly. "But I'll let you in on a secret. Since you're going to be imprisoned for the next five years, and we will have already come out with this by then I'll tell you what we do here, and what that package was about." Agamemnon calmed down, sure that if he was going to escape, this wouldn't be the place.

            Agamemnon was shocked by all that he had just heard. It seemed impossible what he had just said. But even if they weren't that shocking, he still couldn't think straight; they had _thoroughly_ interrogated him. How_ did I get into this mess?_ he thought. The memories flashed back.

Flashback…flashback…flashback...

Beep…beep…beep…

6:25… wake up call.

Teete… teete… teete…

6:30… get up call.

Brushing teeth. Getting changed. Ate breakfast. Going to cousin's car. Headed to school. Goin' to locker. Ring… ring… first bell. Go to class.

Sift through mind… what's my class? Figured it out, and headed towards it. Feel like crap today, so I'm not gonna pay attention at all… as usual. Why feel like crap? My family's breaking apart. Parents separating. All this other crap going on, I'm not in the mood to care anymore… In class, and rest my head on the table. Drifting off to sleep… I remembering the days before my parents lost their jobs. It was so nice back then, and I was the perfect student. We were the perfect family, envy of all. Now people talk behind our backs about how troubled we are. Why did this have to happen to me? "Agamemnon!"

WTF? "Agamemnon, wake up!" yelled my teacher. I suddenly jolt up, and stared her down.

"Who the hell are you to order me?" I yell back. Everyone looks shocked at my reaction/language.

"No sleeping in class young man!" the teacher yells (and attempts to size me up), and throws my book open I front of me.

"Bitch!" I say. Everyone is about to say "ooo", but I pull out my handgun and point it to her forehead

"OMG!" she gasps. She starts shrinking to the ground, and I keep my gun at her forehead. I unlock the safety. By now, everyone in class starts screaming, and some people get out of the room. People outside are getting curious about what is happening in our room, and they're trying to see what's causing the raucous. I have 2 options now, blow her brains out, or run away. All of a sudden I look out of the corner of my eye, and see her. The only person I had ever cared for, and she's crying. I don't know if it's 'cause I might shoot our teacher, or because she actually cared about me, and didn't want me to end up like this. Damn it, I just _had_ to look at her. "Fuck this shit!" I say, and run out of the room. I push through the crowd, and run out of the building, them not realizing that I was the one who started it all. _Good thing I rode my bike so much over the summer_ I thought, surprised by how much and how fast I had run. School behind me, I could hear the cops pullin' up.

I hid the gun inside my jacket, back where I originally put it, and headed toward the first place that I could think of where the dropouts hang, the east side. I finally reached there, and caught my breath. I called an old friend. I take the bus downtown, and head towards the slums. I get off and see him waiting for me.

"Yo," he says "I thought you said you wouldn't need me to return the favor"

"So did I, but things are just too fucked up now bee…"

"Sorry bout that bro…" he says "But I think I know who can help you. I have this cousin that joined this thing called the Back Draft, and he said they were recruiting new members"

"Yo, man, I might be in trouble, but that's dope. Don't you know what those people do?

"Yah, man, but you don't have any other options. You been a city boy to long to go back to the street. At least with them you stand a chance…"

"I dunno dog…"

End flashback, with a water transition

            _Well, that's what I get for taking the easy way out…_ _Life was so good back then. I just had to mess it all up. I was a good kid… If I ever get out of here, I'm goin' straight. No more dirty business. Never more._ Agamemnon curled up into a ball and cried himself to sleep in his new, high security prison cell.

            "Jamie, how much farther does the trail lead?" said the Doc.

            "Well…" said Jamie "the ion trail from Bit's thrusters ends a few clicks from here, and some other emission comes out of the Liger, which goes underground. But the trail that he seemed to be following is still steady. I think it goes on for a few more clicks into the Aroché mountain chain."

            "So how much longer will it take to get to the Aroché mountain chain, anyway?" asked Brad, who woke up from his nap when he heard the two's voices. He said it quietly, since Naomi was sleeping curled up to him. 

            "About fifteen minutes at full speed," said Jamie "but I'm not sure if the Hover Cargo can handle it."

            "Well," said the Doc as he reached towards the throttle with a big grin on his face "we'll never know until we try…" He did it very suddenly, and everyone except Jamie was being crushed into his or her seat. Jamie, on the other hand, flew to the back, since he didn't have his seatbelt on.

"Ow…" said Jamie, slipping off the back wall, when the acceleration was complete.

            "Commander, another unidentified vehicle is heading in our direction. Ground forces say its some type of hover platform. They commented that it looks like the Blitz team's Hover Cargo, but without the 'shell' part of it, and moving many times faster than it should be" said a Back Draft lackey. 

            "Is it now?" said the commander in a thoughtful tone. After a few minutes of typing into his computer, he took out a disk and said "tell them the search the vehicle with a subsonic beacon with a joint infrared scope and see if it comes up with any of the frequencies that this disk has on it."

            "Yes sir," said the lackey "transmitting orders." A few minutes later the ground teams report that the vehicle had all the frequencies except two, which where the last two on the list. "Sir, they report that the vehicle had all the frequencies except two, which were the last two on the list you gave them."

            "Good" replied the commander. So it _is_ the Blitz team. Dr. Leyon was good for something. Now, if I can capture them, I'll be promoted for sure!

            "Sir," said the lackey who was getting worried by the expression on the commander's face "are you all right?"

            "_I_ am king… what?" said the commander who was suddenly taken out of his trance. "Oh yeah. Tell the units to take everyone on board prisoner. But make sure none of them get hurt." Then, with a cruel smile "I don't care what they do to the Vehicle r anything in it, just as long as its inhabitants are safely captured."

            "Yes sir"

            "I have to commend you on your piloting so far Jamie" said the Doc "all that high speed flying trained you pretty well for the job"

            "Why thanks!" replied Jamie. Well, that's what he was about to say, but something rocked the ship, and anyone not strapped in (Jamie) went flying forward. "Ow…" he said instead. Jamie quickly got up to see what was going on. "Holy ____! There's an army out there! And there are like ten Gogulases anchoring us to the ground!"

            "What's going on?" said a half asleep, but not gonna get any more rest Naomi

            "We're under attack!" said the Doc. By now, everyone asleep, or not in the room had woken up, or gone into the room.

            "Jamie! Learn how to drive, for God's sake!" said a blood thirsty Leena.

            "It wasn't me! I swear it!" said a cowering Jamie, who hid behind the Doc.

            "Then what's goin' on!!!" said a Brad, who seemed to be PMSing (Ow… wth Brad!? _Im not a girl!_ Says you! _What did you say? Say it to my face. _I mean, be happy I didn't make you "change sides" _ you sick, SICK kid. _Glad to be of service Ma'am _what did you say?_ Ow… hey, now ur getting it!) _And what's this feeling I have in my chest?_ (hahahahaaaa)

            "We're under attack!!!" said Jamie.

            "Really?" said Leena. "That's great! I've been itchin' to kick some butt lately" and ran to her Gun Sniper. Everyone else except for Jamie and the Doc followed her, and Brad was scratching his chest on the way. (_Hey! This has been going on for long enough! Im starting to get scared… _what are you talking to me for? I didn't do anything _then who did…_)

            "I don't think I'll ever understand Leena" said Jamie.

            "What's there not to understand?" said the Doc. "She's a tomboy!"

            "Hey I heard that dad!" said Leena over the intercom.

            "Man, you got in there fast" said Jamie.

            "IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN SOMETHING???" said a fitful Leena.

            "Um… sorry, ant talk to you now, those people are hailing us" said Jamie quicky, glad that he could get away from this before any blood was shed.

            "Attention intruding party. Surrender immediately, or we will fire on you!" said the commander.

            "You and who's army?" said the Doc.

            "Hahahaa… look around you old man" he replied. True to his word, there was an army around them (as Jamie had _kindly _mentioned earlier). There were hundreds of Demanits, Macurtis, and Grounchar. There were also a few Molgas, Rev Raptors, Petras and Zabats. And the last group, a blue Elephander, a pair of MadThunder, six Iron Kongs, and the ten Gogulases anchoring the Hover Cargo down.

            "Oh yeah…"

            "Your pathetic army doesn't scare us!" said Leena on her intercom, as she got out of the Hover Cargo

            "It doesn't?" said the Doc.

            "Ya!" she said, and started her I'm-about-to-kill-you-all-in-one-shot-ritual; then she started blowing up the nearest Grounchar. Brad and Naomi were getting out while she "covered". Naomi when to the highest place she could find on the Hover Cargo, and Brad went to the side that Leena wasn't covering. Since the Doc and Jamie didn't want to seem useless, they manned the Hover Cargo's defensive turrets.

            "Well, if you want to do it the hard way…" said the commander finally.

            Leena was almost done taking out all the Grounchar and Macurtis that were on her side of the battlefield, but wasn't dangerously low on ammo. "Take this you rat! Bite on my Wild Weasel attack! HAHAHAAA!!!"

            _I think she's having too much fun_ thought Naomi. She was sniping the heavy, but slow units, and had succeeded at taking out five Iron Kongs. She was taking aim at the last one left.

            Brad was dealing with a while lot of Demantis, but was keeping them at bay with his Vulcan Cannon. _Man, will they ever stop coming?_

            Jamie and the Doc had their own troubles. The two MadThunder were barraging them with a hail of beams and mortars. Jamie was desperately trying to pick them off with the Hover Cargo's weaponry, and the Doc was trying to keep the shield online. 

            "That's the last of them!" said Leena, taking out her last foe. She never noticed the giant shadow looming over her.

            "Really?" said the commander.

            "Who said that?" said Leena, unaware of the whereabouts of the commander.

            "I did!" he said, and turned his boosters off, falling right in front of Leena.

            "Ahhh!!!" said Leena in surprise, and instinctively expelled all her ammo on him. When the smoke cleared, she saw the Elephander's trunk disengaging its shield. "Uhoh…"

            "Your finished!" said the commander, and grabbed the Gun Sniper with its trunk. Then he thrashed it around, making its limbs, weapons, and armor fly off; he stopped when he thought that she was knocked out.

            "Got Ya!" said Naomi, as the sniped the last Iron Kong. She disengaged her sniper mode, and turned her Gun Sniper around to look for the MadThunder that were assaulting the Hover Cargo. When she found them, she reactivated the sniper mode. _Steady girl_ she thought to herself, as she put on of the MadThunder into her cross hairs. _Steady_ she made minute adjustments to make sure her shot would take out the MadThunder. _Almost there_ she slowed down her breathing rate, and counted with her heartbeat. _NOW!_ She fired when her heartbeat was at its correct time. The round hit exactly where it was headed… only to by blocked by some blue-green shield. The MadThunder had noticed, and was training its guns at Naomi. _Damn! Gotta move!_ She thought, but she was too late. The MadThunder had fired its beam weapon and hit dead center, and blasted Naomi off the Hover Cargo. It was a KO. The MadThunder continued to blast at the Hover Cargo.

            Brad was getting desperate, and turned on his stealth gas. None of the Demantis pilots could see, and he easily picked them off. He checked his sensors and found out that he had taken them all out. But then something heavy landed on him.

            "Peek-a-boo! I see you…" said the commander. He also had sensors like Brad's, and used them to find him and land on him. Unfortunately for him, he had his underside exposed to Brad Vulcan cannon.

            "I see you too" he replied, and tore the Elephanter's underside with a continuous barrage of Vulcan cannon fire.

            "Argh. You'll pay for that!" said the commander. He got off the Shadow Fox, but grabbed it with its trunk before it could escape. He thrashed it around until he was sure that Brad was unconscious.

            _Now its just the stupid Hover Cargo_ thought the commander. "All troops: engage the Hover Cargo!" The MadThunder barraged the Hover Cargo with new intensity. The hidden Demantis, Maccurtis and Grounchar joined the fray. The commander used the Elephander's missile pods and beam weapons. And the Gogulases that were anchoring the Hover Cargo turned to it and barraged it with their CPC's.

            "We can't hold them back any longer" said the Doc. The shields were failing, and circuits all over the Hover Cargo were burning out. 

"Ahh!!!" they both said when the shields failed, and the whole ship was rocking from the impacts of the enemy fire. The Hover Cargo was being torn apart by it, and they were lucky that the cabin ejected when it did, because the Hover Cargo exploded…

All my life I have suffered pain. Those damned beasts murdered my family, and I dedicated my life to exterminating them from the face of Zi. All I wanted to do was protect everyone from the danger they posed. But no one understood… they did their best to stop me, and then they became my enemy; my noble quest became a blood lust. So I lived a lonely life, with only Shadow as my friend. How ironic that of all things to befriend me, it was a Zoid, and that it also shared the thirst to destroy all Zoids from Zi, maybe even itself.

_So here I was, since I died, left to contemplate what I had done all my life; the pain and suffering that I caused. The whole populations I had slaughtered… but it doesn't matter. I'm not going to go to the next world like everyone else. I've been damned to live my afterlife on this miserly planet, and the only way I'll ever go on is if I somehow redeem myself. But like the voice said, there are few that deserve second chances, and even fewer who get them…_

"RAHhhh" screeched Shadow to Raven.

What's this? A new form of punishment? They're making an illusion of the one thing I ever loved, and will probably snatch it away from me when I see it. Did I really commit such crimes to warrant this?

"RAHHHH" screeched Shadow again. Realizing that he wasn't responding, he opened his chest cavity, and put him in there. Then he went to the surface and released him.

Can it possibly be? I feel the warmth of the sunlight, but I was buried miles underground inside that canyon. How could I have possibly been raised? Raven opened his eyes, but had to squint. His eyes hadn't seen Zi's sun for decades. When he could finally see, he saw the silhouette of Shadow's figure. Can it really be? Shadow got closer to him, and Raven could finally make out his details. Raven inched his face closer to him, as did Shadow, until their noses touched. It really is. But how? 

            Raven's eyes quickly jumped to life and he did something he never did since he was a child: he hugged Shadow. At first Shadow thought that Raven had gone nits, but as always, emulated his Master's feelings; he wasn't caught up with annihilating all of mankind, not today at least. Raven got up and grabbed Shadow by his hands, and started dancing in circles with him.

            "Oh Shadow, I thought I'd never see you again!" said a youthful Raven.

            "Rahhh" Shadow said in agreement. Then he turned into a blot and went back into the canyon.

            "I know that you're really fast and all, um… Liger, but if you go so fast that you lap the world once when you brake, you know there' something ridiculous about it" said Bit.

            "…whoops" said Hiro.

            "Can I ask you one thing Liger?"

            "Sure"

            "What's your real name?"

            "Well, I was RZ-002, but I was known as Hiro" he relied.

            "So, I should call you Hiro from now on, shouldn't I?"

            "I guess. Being called Liger gets demeaning after a while"

            "Sorry 'bout that"

            "No problem… wait, yes problem! Back Draft base coming up!" said Hiro

            "Huh? So that's who's got Jamie. I bet its Leyon again, trying to get you."

            "It seems so."

            "Well, lets not disappoint them. And since you look lie a Molga, it should be easy to get in."

            They slowed down until they went to the cruising speed of a Molga, and slowly pulled up to the entrance.

            "ID number and clearance pass?" said the entrance guard. Hiro quickly hacked into their data pass, and found a Molga that was on a scouting mission. He found one, and copied its ID, clearance pass, the image of the pilot, and his voice. Then he put a modifier on the intercom, so Bit would sound like the pilot, and relayed the image of the pilot speaking.

            "This is…um" Bit sounded a bit nervous "This is Atari 2 reporting. Clearance A1" he pretended to swipe the pass that would transmit the information. The guard looked at his screen, but confused; Bit thought he was caught.

            "Says here you're not supposed to report in till 400 hours from now." Hiro cut in for him.

            "My recon and communication equipment failed. I was reporting in to base to repair it."

            "Alright, I'll tell engineering." the guard said. He was talking to someone, and took some time at it, and then he went back to Bit. "Engineering says to go to maintenance deck A4"

            "Thanks." said Bit, and headed to where he guard told him to go.

            "I have a bad feeling about this buddy. This seems too easy" said Bit

            "Well, this is the Back Draft we're dealing with."

            "Ya, but… wait a minute, this doesn't look like a maintenance bay. It's too empty" said Bit. Just as he said that, the entrance to the room was blocked.

            "What the…"

            "You really didn't think we'd fall for that, did you?" said someone from the room's loudspeakers. Then robotic turrets came out to the floor, ceiling and walls, and started shooting at them. Hiro was melting. "We were planning on you trying to pull something like that on us, so we made this room especially for you. But we didn't know that you would find out that your team was captured by us so soon." The EMPs melted all of Hiro away, and stunned Bit. That was the last thing he remembered hearing.

Raven? How'd he come back?

And what is the fate of Bit and the gang?

            Find out in Chapter twelve "Raven the Dark"

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 

This series is winding up, and I promise that Zi will reencounter something it hasn't encountered for millennia…


	13. Raven the Dark

** Legacy of the Ancients**

**Chapter Twelve: Raven the Dark**

By: Sci-Fi-Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids, nor do I advocate the use of cats as sponges...

            One more thing, Thanks a lot to Channel Zi for all the Zoid descriptions he has out there.

***

            I stood there for a few minutes, and I started hearing the roar of a jumpjet. I went closer to the edge of the canyon, and saw something acending from it. It took time to realize it at first, but then I realized what I was seeing. It was the Zoid I was piloting when I died… it was the Geno Breaker. _Its in front of you Raven… what will you do? Very few get second chances._

            The Geno Breaker seemed to be in perfect condition. None of the damage it used to have was on it anymore, and it didn't even look like it had aged over the years. It landed a short distance from the lip of the canyon, I heard Shadow roar from inside of it. Then Shadow opened its cockpit, cueing me to go inside. The hiss of the pneumatic pumps sounded like a snake warning me away. I walked up to it slowly, as if it was some kind of sacred relic, but as it grew more familiar to me, I jumped inside. The cockpit closed, and I strapped myself inside.

            "Wow. Its so much cooler in here then it was outside" said Raven, wiping his sweat away. Shadow roared in agreement. Raven started using the controls so he could get used to them again. _So much time, so little to do. What did I do to pass the time back then?_

            Raven noticed a bump on the horizon, and when he zoomed into it with his telescope, he saw a city. _That's right… maybe I should pay them a visit, to show them how I feel being in that canyon for so long._ He turned on his thrusters and hovered to the town.

***

            "Bit… Bit… wake up…" said a voice. I opened my eyes to find an unnatural darkness. As my eyes adjusted, I could see the silhouette of someone above me, blocking a dim light.

            "Where… am I?" I could finally see who it was; it was Jamie.

            "Man Bit, I thought you'd never wake up" he said. I sat up, and rubbed my sore head. I was lying on the concrete ground this whole time.

            "What happened to me?" I asked.

            "It seems that you got caught while trying to sneak into this base." said the Doc from another cell.

            "Oh yeah…" I said, remembering the unusual events leading up to Liger and me getting fried. "Where is everyone?" I finally asked.

            "Me and you are in this cell, Doc, Brad, and Naomi are in the cell across from us, and Leena got sent to a high security cell because she beat up a lot of the guards and chewed through the cell she was in here"

            "Wait… she chewed through a cell?"

            "Yeah, that one over there" said Jamie, pointing to a cell nearby. I had a huge chink missing from a lot of the bars, and some were bent so that someone Leena's size could fit through.

            "That's scary…"

            "Good morning Bit Cloud!" said someone from an intercom. Bit looked around thinking there was an actual person, until he saw a video screen coming out of the ceiling. He waited for it, and saw someone he'd never seen before.

            "And who are you?"

            "I am Commander Ryker, head scientist and commander of this base."

            "Why'd you detain us?"

            "Because you took something that belonged to us" he said, and then camera the changed to show a vat with a quasi-clear liquid inside it. The vat was full of electrodes and some other gizmos, and was surrounded by some kind of energy field. "Some time ago, one of our scientists found a lost relic in the desert. He tried to discover its secrets, but in the process, it overcame him, and blew up the base he worked in. He captured it again, but that traitor decided to keep it for himself, and was ultimately killed by his discovery. We tracked it down, and found that you had somehow gained possession of it, and somehow even managed to tame it." The camera went back to him. "So we have a proposition for you. Teach us how to harness its power, and we will let you pilot it in our Zoid matches."

            "….No" Bit said finally.

            "What?! Don't you know the potential of this discovery?"

            "Yes I do, but I don't need your help, so let me, my friends and the Liger go" he demanded.

            "So that's how it will be? Well, we thought that you might have said that, so we designed this instrument" the camera went back to the vat. "to reprogram it." The camera went back to him. "The thing is, it will be long and painful for the monstrosity, and it will make it less efficient when it is converted."

            "Liger can take anything you can throw at him!"

            "Really? Well, can you take anything we throw at you, or more specifically, your friends? This is my ultimatum, join us, or your friend will die, starting with that wretched girlfriend of yours."

            "What? You can't be serious!" yelled Bit, but the video stream was cut off, and the screen was going back into the ceiling.

            "You have three hours to decide" he said through the intercom.

***

            "So… why'd you get stuck here?" said the timid man.

            "They wanted to catch my… a friend, and they're gonna use me to make him do something for them."

            "That's gotta suck… But why did you go into this cell? You don't look that dangerous"

            "Really?" said Leena, and went up to the steel bunk. She took it by two ends, and bent it.

            "I see."

            "So, why'd you get in here?"

            "I helped someone in the Blitz team, so I've become a traitor."

            "What? That's nonsense!" said Leena, sure that he was talking about Jamie.

            "I know… I knew I should've just left that kid and his girlfriend, but I just had to be nice."

            "You know what? You seem too nice to be someone who would join the Backdraft. Why did you?" asked Leena.

            "Well, since I don't have anything to do for the next five years, it couldn't hurt to tell you. So, here's my story"

            He told her about the incident that happened in school that started the whole mess, and told her how the Backdraft was his only option. But to stay in it, he had to make some dirty friends, and learned the art of the gangster. He told her about how he rose through the ranks, and shed his dirty past to become a hauler, but it turned out that his good nature out be his down fall. Then he told her that if he could get a distraction, he could get them out of there, only because he didn't have a gun.

            "So, if I could make a distraction, you could get me out?"

            "Yeah, but we'd have to go to a nearby city to keep the Backdraft off our backs."

            "Alright, you get ready to spring us out of here, I'll make the distraction." She said, and eyed the cell bars hungrily.

***

            I approached the city at a moderate speed. When I arrived, I found no one to play with. No Zoid pilots, no nothing. I was about to blast it to nothing when my stomach growled. _I definitely haven't missed being hungry. _I tucked the Zoid in a nearby rock formation, and covered it with a sand colored sheet I always kept inside of it. Then I took Shadow with me into the city. As we walked down the street, we got stares, probably because there was a dinosaur-like Organoid walking behind me, but it disappointed me; I was expecting more fear. _I guess I have to build myself a reputation again_

            I decided that I would start with this old man I saw walking with a pair of young men. I slowly went up behind then, Shadow shadowing me, and made my move. I grabbed the old man by the neck, and Shadow sprang in front of me to keep the men from attacking me.

            "What the hell?" the old man said. The men heard his yelp, and quickly turned to face an angry Shadow.

            "One more move, and the man gets it." I said, squeezing his neck a little tighter to show them I wasn't bluffing. When I felt the old man's heart pumping with fear, I couldn't help but smile.

***

            "So you're telling us that Liger isn't really a Zoid, but a highly advanced robot?" said Naomi.

            "Kinda, but he can change his shape, so I figure that's why he's a liquid right now."

            "So, what are you gonna do?" I don't know… wait, Brad, do you still have that portable laser I put in your shirt?"

            "What portable laser?" asked Brad.

            "You know, the one I didn't tell you about that I put in your shirt?" said Bit. Brad looked in his shirt, and found a laser stick.

            "So that's what's been making me itchy all this time."

            "Start cutting your cell's bars off, and then do it for us, and then we'll rescue Leena"

            "All right" he said, and stared cutting the bars off. Two and a half hours later, Brad cut the last bar off Bit's cell, and helped him and Jamie come out.

            "This is it Bit Cloud, you have run out of time, and you must make your final decision." said Ryker over the intercom; oblivious that is prisoners had escaped.

            "Well, I still didn't change my mind, and you're gonna lose!"

            "If that's how you want it done… your girlfriend dies in two minutes." he said and signed off the intercom.

            "We gotta save her!" said Bit.

            "You could have just pretended that you agreed just to buy time and rescued her before anything happened."

            Bit put his head up to a wall and started banging it. "Stupid, stupid, stupid…"

            "Bit, bashing your brains wont do anything, but action will. I think you have about one minute and forty seconds left." said Naomi.

            "Then what are we waiting for?" said Bit, and ran outside. The rest of the group followed him out side.

***

            Leena rubbed her sore mouth and sat on the bunk to rest. "Well, I guess we'll have to wait for a miracle to get out of here." No sooner had she said that, a troop of guards come into the room and opened their cell.

            "What's going on?" said Agamemnon. The guards cuffed Leena, and started taking her out.

            "None of your business, but we're gonna execute this little lady. Such a waste though, I could have a lot of fun with her…" and touched a part of her. His realy pissed her off, and she went into a rage. The punched and kicked, until everyone was knocked out. Then she bit her cuffs off.

            "That's what you get for messing with Leena Tauros!" said Leena triumphantly, and started doing a victory dance.

            "I'm glad you're on my side" said Agamemnon, and took two guns, and a bunch of grenades. He also gave Leena a gun and a bunch of grenades. "You know how to use a gun?"

            "No…"

            "Grenades?"

            "I know how to use them, but I never did."

            "That's good enough" he said "you can use the grenades, and carry these gns for me until my guns run out of ammo.

            "Ok, but we have to save my friends!"

            "I'm sorry, but we can't do that. Its only the two of us, and we could never find them, help them escape and get out alive. But you can go to my town with me, and wait for me to get some help."

            "What do you mean?"

            "Remember I said I had to learn how to be a gangster? Well I still hav some gangster friends back home, so I can have them help us. But you have to decide; do you want to come with me and live and fight another day? Or do you want to die here in vain? You have to decide now." Leena thought long and har about it, and was on the verge of tears. She finally made her choice, and sucked it in.

            "I'll go with you. But if you don't help me rescue my friends later, I'm gonna skin you alive!"

            "That's my girl" he said and winked. "Now, we just have to make another distraction, and these grenades are all we need. "But before we go, we have to hide these bodies so they think you got executed."

***

            "There are just too many cells!" said Bit. He knew the twominute ultimatum was over, and he was desperate. "Dammit!"

            "Come one Bit, just let it go… theres no way for us to help her now. All we can do is get out of here." said the Doc.

            "What?! There's no way I'm leaving without Leena, just like she'd never leave me!" he said, and tried to search through more cells. 

            "Come on Bit!" said Brad and tried to tug him away.

            "No!" said Bit and slugged him in the face. Then he continued his search without even apologizing.

            "WELL, IF YOU WANNA DIE, SO BE IT!" yelled Brad, but Bit paid no attention. "There's no talking to him" he said to the rest of them.

            "Brad, if I was stuck here, would you leave me behind?" asked Naomi.

            "… No. No, I wouldn't. But that doesn't mean we have to die with him!" he said, and started heading to the emergency escape. The rest of the group slowly and cautiously followed him.

***

            The fools didn't heed my warning, and tried to run past Shadow to get me, so I twisted the old man's neck. Or at least I was going to until I felt a sharp pain on my lower spine. I let him go, and turned back to see whom my attacker was. He looked just like the old man, but much younger, and then I collapsed on the floor. My head hit the pavement hard, and I heard Shadow roaring. Then I heard a zap, and I heard a thump near me. Then I felt pressures all over my body, but I couldn't feel anything anymore. The only thing that ran through my mind at that point was what the voice said before: _there are few that deserve second chances, and even fewer who get them._

***

            "Okay, the grenades will blow up in ten seconds, and destroy this computer room, so we have to get as far away from here as possible, because all the guards will come here, and we can get out without any problems." Said Agamemnon. They traveled far away from their cell, and set grenades into a strategic location to draw the guards away when they would try to escape.

            "Okay" Leena said, and started running where they were to wait. Then Agamemnon engaged the grenades and ran to Leena's heading.

            He counted in his head the whole time "Ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one…" Boom! They hid in a cramped spot, and waited for all the guards to pass. Agamemnon was getting uncomfortable about how close he was to Leena.

***

            Bit finally reached a high-security cell. He quickly searched through it, and when he found nothing, was about to leave it until something caught his eye… a torn piece of pink fabric. He went up to it, and examined it; his worse fears had come true…

            He fell to the ground, and started crying. _They took her… she's gone forever… they just had to take her…_ Then he got mad… really mad…

            "NNOOOOOOO!!!!!!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. It seemed that the whole base started to shake at the anger. As if something was exploding nearby… "I'll get you Ryker!!!" he said, and his rage peaked… he had lost control. His lungs were burning, and his heart was pumping. And then it happened…

            Dormant chemicals and brain structures started to activate, and he started changing. A fire started to engulf him, his hair was turning red, and his eyes became blood shot. And the rabbit appeared on his hand again. Bit had lost it, and all he felt was anger and rage, and he was ready to destroy everything in sight… He held his hand out to the nearest cell.

***

            Agamemnon had told Leena that they would wait until the lab was completely destroyed, and that its contents had stopped exploding. When he thought it was safe, he peeked outside to make sure it was safe. When her saw no one there, he motioned for Leena to come out and follow him. They walked to the nearest exit, when all of a sudden an explosion rocked the building. Then many more explosions followed, and it seemed like the base was going to self-destruct. Another sudden explosion rocked the base, and both Agamemnon and Leena fell because of it. Tey fell backwards, so Agamemnon fell on top of Leena, but quickly got off, apologizing for what had happened.

            "Sorry about that" he said and blushed.

            "Its okay" giggled Leena. He helped her up.

            "Hey you two! Stop!" said a guard who was in their corridor.

            "Damn!" said Agamemnon, and grabbed Leena, and put both of them around corner so that the guard couldn't shoot at them. He wasn't watching what he grabbed, and got slapped in the face by Leena. He looked at where his hand was and realized it was on her chest. He blushed a lot, and was about to apologize when he heard gunshots. Since they were at an intersection between to perpendicular corridors, he leaped to the other side, and shot his guns Matrix style at the guy. He got a lot of hits, but his armor protected him. But then a bullet hit a joint, and he was down. Just to make sure he didn't shoot them while they passed, he shot the guard's gun away. Then he armed a grenade at the intersection and him and Leena ran to the nearby exit.

            "Why'd you do that?" said Leena as they ran away

            "Just in case anyone heard it and decided to follow us" he replied. Leena shot a glance behind her and saw that the intersection was caved in.

            "Oh"

            They finally reached the exit and found the hanger. They saw that someone had already opened the door for them, and one of the vehicles was missing.

            "How kind of them" mumbled Agamemnon.

            "What?"

            "Never mind. Let's just take the fastest ride here." They quickly browsed through the available vehicles, and decided to take a two seated, high-speed, hover vehicle, and got in. Agamemnon quickly hot wired it, and sped out of the base and headed to his home city.

            "So, who are your friends anyway?"

            "Ever heard of the Mafia?"

            "Oh no…"

            "Well, now you know why I wanted to get away from them."

            "But will they still help you after you left?"

            "Of course. I may have been a goody-goody, but when you're in the Backdraft, you're always doing something illegal. What I did was tell them what the Backdraft was shipping in its hauls, so they would know what would have been the best thing to loot. But they knew my hauler, so they kept away from me"

            "I just hope that we can save my friends in time" she said. Then she heard a loud explosion, and looked behind her. The base had a mushroom cloud where it last stood.

***

            Bit finally cooled down, and had a little control of himself. Now that Leena was gone, all he could think of was revenge. "Ryker! Show yourself!" Bit yelled at the top of his lungs, which was amplified by his Hyper Mode, which started shaking whatever was left of the building. Then a screen came out of the floor, and Ryker was there.

            "I'm about 2000 meters away from you." Ryker sneered. "I knew that the monstrosity might have done something to you, so I didn't take any chances. I'm in an unmarked Whale King with it contained in its specially designed vat to keep it under my control. You should have taken my deal, Bit. Because of your arrogance, you lost. I have no other reason to speak to you." He said, and cut off the communication.

            Bit lost his anger. He lost his sorrow… he was empty of emotion. The Hyper Mode disengaged, and he fell to his knees and started crying. _I lost them both…_

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	14. Gangsta' Love

** Legacy of the Ancients**

**Chapter Thirteen: Gangsta' Love**

By: Sci-Fi-Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids, nor do I advocate the use of ducklings as skipping stones…

***

"Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God…" she said as she covered her face with her hands. 

"Shit! How the hell did those small explosions destroy the whole base?"

"Its… its your fault! I should have never listened to you. My friends would be alive if it weren't for you!" said Leena, ready to strangle him.

"Yo… yo! Calm down. Listen, if you didn't bail, you would have been long dead by now. And remember the hangar?" she nodded, and her tears stopped flowing. "There was a missing car, and it probably could have comfortably seated all your friends. Now calm down, we're almost there, and if my friends think there is something wrong with you, I'm not responsible for their actions."

"Is that a threat?!" she said, ready to strangle him again.

"PIPE DOWN!"

"Oh no you didn't…"

***

By head ached… I think I had a migraine. My whole body felt really bad, as if my body was having a migraine. And then it was all gone, no pain; as if I was instantly healed. My eyes were closed the whole time, but I realized that a bright light was shining on my face. I lifted my head, and opened my eyes, hoping that I would see who was my captor. _It can't be… just leave me alone!!!_ It was him again, and he was looking at me in contempt. Or was it just the light? They look so similar. But I could make out some silhouettes of the people in the room. At least ten people; no way to escape without Shadow.

"Eh boss, he's awake"

"Should we mess him up?"

"No… all of you leave. I wanna talk to him myself"

"Whatever you say boss" The silhouettes went to my right. One by one, they all left until there was only one left. He adjusted the light so that it pointed down, and I could see his face. He approached me slowly, and slowly I could make out the details of his face as my eyes adjusted.

"You have some nerve kid… no one in their right mind would think about assaulting the leader of the Mafia. So, were you drunk or something? Cause if you chose to attack me consciously, that would have been the last conscious choice you would have made." He waited eagerly for my answer, but I gave him none.

"What, you a mute? No… you can't be. I remember your voice"

"Yes, I did consciously assault you"

"What the f**k was going on in your head kid?" he said, point at my brain.

"You were an old guy, and I wanted to mess someone up"

"…WHAT?" he said in disbelief. He obviously thought that he was a very important person, and was stunned that I had no idea who or what he was. "Do you know who I am?"

"No, and I don't care" I said nonchalantly. His face grew red with fry, but then something unsettling happened to him; he became calm, even amused.

"We could use someone like you" he said, and was about to continue, but was cut short by one of his men.

"Eh boss, someone wants to see ya"

"Tell 'em I'm busy"

"You won't believe who it is boss"

"Dammit!" he thought aloud, and politely excused himself. One of his men was about to come inside and guard me, but he dismissed him saying I was "cool." I was alone in the room now, and I tried getting out of the restraints.

***

"So, who's this guy that wants to see me so bad" said Emilio.

"Is that how you welcome an old friend?"

"Agamemnon… is that you?"

"In the flesh" I said, and we both hugged each other.

"Its been a long time since I've seen you bro'"

"I know, and I'm sorry I didn't visit as often as I would have liked, but you know how the Back Draft is"

"Ya… wait, aren't you supposed to be doing your clean job?"

"I was, until I got in trouble for helping someone who was injured."

"Well, that's gotta suck"

"You can say that again"

"Well, that's gotta…" he cut himself off, when he noticed Leena "Who's the chick?"

"She's my… my girlfriend" I instantly replied. Leena gave me a death stare, and I responded with an expression saying I would explain later.

"Oh, so she's not available" said Emilio, and a bunch of guys sighed in disappointment. At that point Leena did not need any explanation for my response. "Well, I better get you two a room. Actually, I have a room that was specially designed for people like you"

"Oh? Oh… I get your drift. So, where's Henry?" I asked when he was referring to his deceased wife Olivia. Unfortunately for her, she died during labor, and it caused Emilio a lot of grief; they really loved each other.

"Here I am uncle Agamemnon" said a young man that looked like the Emilio I used to know.

"Henry!" I said, and we embraced. "You've grown so much since I last saw you!" Like I said, Henry looked just like his father did, but he had his mother's eyes.

"He just keeps on growing" said one of the men. It was obvious that Henry had just recently joined the "family business", and he was finally being trained. We let go and held hands for a few seconds, and that's when I noticed it.

"Henry, what happened to your hands?"

"Well, basically, some screw ball came up to dad and tried to kill him, but I taught him his lesson" he said with a lopsided grin, and the men laughed in approval.

"He just went up and attacked Emilio? I gotta see this guy…" I said.

"This way" said Emilio, and we went to the interrogation room. I didn't forget Leena, and I let her go before me, so I was the last one to get in. When I did, I saw a boy, no older than Henry tied to a chair. But I had a bad feeling about this kid. He must have been sleeping, because when I closed the door (which I accidentally slammed) he raised his head.

"What could have possibly have possessed you to attack Emilio?" I asked him.

"…I was bored" was all he said.

"You were bored? Do you know who you attacked?"

"Like I said before, I don't know, and I don't care…"

"Are you aware that in an instant, he could have you killed?"

"Yeah, what's your point?"

"…I like this kid" I finally said. Either this kid was really smart, or really stupid.

"That's what I was sayin'!" exclaimed Emilio.

***

Over the next few weeks, Leena and I got settled in, and we tried to contact the rest of her team. I tired my best, but nothing really happened. After the first two weeks, I gave up, and decided that I would oversee the training of the new recruit; he was remarkable. The initiation that people took before they could join usually took two weeks, but he managed in a mere five days. Soon, he was actively robbing banks and stealing Zoids from the Back Draft, since Emilio had a problem with them, and made new records in stealing at a given duration of time (he stole faster than anyone else had ever done). Leena never gave up her search, but she stopped telling me about how far she had gotten. Then, one day while I was taking a walk, she came running up to me, jumped up to me and kissed me, knocking me to the ground.

"Nice to see you too…" I said.

"You won't believe what happened!" she said as she was on top of me. "Thanks to you, Harry found me, and he told me that everyone on my team, except Bit is safely at his place" she said excitedly.

"That's great…" I lied "when are you going?" I said less passionately. In truth, I wanted her to stay. I had gotten to know Leena well, and I think I started to like her, but not that superficial kind of like, that intimate kind of like, almost like love…

"Tomorrow. Harry is gonna send a Petras to pick me up in the afternoon."

"That's great, I feel so happy for you" I said, sitting up and giving her a hug.

"Agamemnon, you were a great friend, and I can't ever begin to repay you for all you've done for me" she said, sounding like she was crying.

"All I want is a thanks" I said. Neither of us noticed the robed figure sneaking away into an alley.

***

"Raven, wake up, Leena is gonna leave in an hour" said Agamemnon. I slowly got up and got changed. I stayed up with Leena to pack what she had accrued during her stay here. Merely four weeks, and she had enough stuff to fit into eight whole suitcases! I still had no idea where she got her money, but I did help her shop (well, I basically carried all the stuff she bought). And now she's leaving. It's not like we'll never see each other again, because she gave me her address, and we can still keep in touch. But it wont be the same without her. I guess I've actually become the person I once was. Shadow was really upset that she had to leave. At some points, it seemed that he thought Leena was his master (which did not get me overtly upset, cause I couldn't blame him)

"Raven, you look like you got hit by a truck" said one of the guys.

"Eight trucks, eight trucks full of clothing"

"Wow…"

"I know" I went to Leena's room, and helped her take her suitcases to the dust-off site. When we finally got her ten suitcases there (she found some other things to pack…), we sat down on the ground and waited. Agamemnon, Emilio, and some of the other guys came to see her off. In a few minutes, we could see the Petras approaching, and Leena started saying goodbye to the guys, and they left since they were supposed to be doing things anyway. When the Petras landed, all of us, including the pilot, loaded her suitcases. At first the pilot just stared at them wide eyed with his mouth gaping, but he accepted that that was what he had to transport. The pilot started the Petras, and we said our final farewells.

"See ya later kid" Leena said, and messed up my hair. Shadow growled, thinking he was forgotten. "I didn't forget you Shadow" said Leena, and petted him. Then she went up to Agamemnon and gave him a long hug, and I could see tears coming out of their eyes. At that point I started remembering all the memories that we had. 

flashback1 Raven walks down the hall and hears someone crying. He follows the sound and sees Leena. He goes up to her and tries to comfort her, and they talk for a long time 

flashback2 Raven and Leena race on bicycles all over the park, and end up colliding into a wall 

flashback3 Raven and Leena attend a fancy party, and end up having a food war. 

And the flashbacks continued until I heard the Petras initiate its thrusters. I got out of my trance, and saw Leena and Agamemnon breaking their embrace. I started saying goodbye to Leena when the unexpected happened…

***

I was saying goodbye to Raven one last time until I saw something fall on and crush the Petras. My first reaction was: "My clothes!", but when I saw what dropped on the Petras, I thought I recognized it. It took me a few seconds, but I realized what it was, it was the Liger, but there was something different about it. Instead of having white armor it was black, and it had blue armor on, and its eyes were a dark blue.

"Bit, is that you?!" I said in outrage. Instead of getting a reply, I got shot at! "Bit you crazy son-of-a-Liger!!!" I swore hysterically. Agamemnon grabbed me and took me to the nearest shelter, while the Liger continued to shoot both of us. That's when another crazy thing happened.

***

I was stunned by the cold-blooded attack. Then I realized that I used to be like this, and I had to act. "SHADOW!!!" I bellowed. In an instant, I saw a streak of light go to where I had stashed the Geno Breaker. In a few seconds the Geno Breaker arrived and I got in.

***

"He's a Zoid pilot? All this time he was a Zoid pilot?" Leena said in utter amazement.

"That's why I recognized him. He's exactly like this historic figure called Raven, but he can't be Raven… he died a long time ago."

***

I didn't want anyone to get hurt, so I shot at the Zoid once to get it to follow me, and I flew to a clearing. When I got there, I turned around and gave it everything that I had. That got it by surprise, but it quickly recovered and fired a volley of rockets at me. When the smoke cleared, and I could see again, I saw it running back to the town. I chased after it, and I tried to grab it by shooting my hands at it; it wouldn't stop. I tried to bury my feet into the ground, but it did nothing, since it activated its thrusters and ripped my arms off. I shot at it repeatedly as a chased it, but it either ignored or dodged my fire. I then decided that I should try a technique I had once thought of while I was in hell, concentrating a CPC emission in such a way, that when it impacted the target, instead of a massive explosion, all the energy would go to the Zoid. I clamped down, and charged; when I was ready, I fired. Everything went perfectly as planned, except for one thing; instead of being damaged by the mass of white energy, it absorbed it. I was going to try again, but I realized that it was getting too close to the town, and I bolted after it yet again.

When we got to town, it turned to face me in one spinning leap and charged, boosters blazing. I had no idea where it came from, but all of a sudden it had a pair of glowing scythes (glowing like the Strike Laser Claw and scythes like the ones on a Rev Raptor) came out of it, and sliced my Zoid in two. I expected it to ignore me at this point, as it previously had, but instead, it shot out two metallic tentacles at my dismembered Zoid, and held the pieces up in the air. Then the most bizarre thing happened… my Zoid melted and the tentacles sucked the liquid in, rapidly consuming my Zoid.

_Shit!_ I thought to myself, and waited for Shadow to take me out. When I realized he wasn't coming, I tried to get out of the Zoid myself, but I had one slight difficulty; the cockpit wouldn't open… I yelled, kicked, and screamed, but it was to no avail; that cockpit could withstand a blow from a CPC emission. But that's when he came again.

"No… not you again. LEAVE ME ALONE DAMMIT!!!"

"Raven, it's your time…"

"… but, I never got to…" I said in acceptance.

"You have proved yourself Raven… your trail is over."

"Trail, what trail?"

"The trail that you wished for so many times while you were in the abyss"

"You mean?" he never heard my question; he was already gone. I patched into my comm-link to say my last farewell. "Hey Leena, hey Agamemnon."

"Raven, how can you be so calm at a time like this?" Leena blurted out.

"It's OK, my time is done; I have passed my trail… farewell my friends" I could tell Leena was about to say something, because I could see her lips about to move, but I ended it there; I could bear it no more.

***

"Raven…" Leena said, but never finished saying.

"Maybe he really was Raven"

"I don't care who he was, he was my friend!" said Leena, and cried on Agamemnon's shoulder, and he tried to comfort her. It was then, that the Black Liger had finished sucking in the shape-shifting colony, and put its sights on Leena. It shot out its tentacles at her, and suspended her in the air.

"Bit Cloud, you let me go this instant!" she yelled. When he didn't respond, she asked Agamemnon for help. "Agamemnon, help me!" Leena said. Agememnon took out his gun and shot at it; he also called in the gang. The Liger took one of its tentacles off Leena, and tried to whip Agamemnon with it. He managed to dodge at first, but he was eventually hit; but to Leena's fortune, that was when the gang arrived. They had a wide assortment of heavy weaponry, and gave it everything they had. Unfortunately for them, the Liger had raised it shields at that time, and was then firing back at them; they ran away as fast as I run away from English class.

"Leena Tauros…" someone said from above. Leena looked up and saw a black Whale King descending above her. "It took me a long time to find you, but I finally did."

"What do you want from me?"

"You're the only person that I know of that Bit Cloud would try and rescue"

"What? Bit is right there! Isn't he?" she found out her answer when the Liger's cockpit opened; there was no one there.

"You want me? Come and get me!" she heard someone say. 

What will happen to Leena and the gang? Find out in chapter fourteen: "Dark Intentions"

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com or at: **Fanwork Feedback**


	15. Thug's Mansion

** Legacy of the Ancients**

**Chapter Fourteen: (Thug's Mansion)**

By: Sci-Fi-Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids, nor do I advocate the use of frogs as paperweights…

And to deter confusion, all communication during any battles are done with the comm.units onboard the speaker's(s) Zoid(s)

***

"You want me? Come and get me!" she heard someone say. She looked at the voice's direction and saw a robed figure; then she saw it on fire.

"Oh my God!" she said, and put her hands to her mouth like she was really scared or sympathetic (the thing some girls do when they go "Oh my gosh!"). The burning bits of robe fell off and then she saw him; it was Bit! Suddenly, he jumped into the air and went to an impossible height. He went so high, he pierced through the Whale King and on his way down left two holes in its chassis, one going up and one going down; but he stopped and floated in mid-air. She couldn't see what he was doing, but she saw fireballs coming out of him, and exploding on the Whale King. Then he stopped and flew down, severing the tentacles holding Leena, which instantly melted; but they somehow collected into the Liger, slithering to it as if they were liquid snakes.

Bit caught Leena before she fell, and to her surprise, he wasn't any hotter than Justin Timberlake (if u get my drift). Leena expected the Liger to attack him, but the person in the Whale King stopped it.

"What the hell was that?" said the Whale King's voice. "Damn it, we have to retreat." The Whale King left as fast as its damaged engines could take it, and the Liger flew into one of its open cargo bays.

Bit gently landed on the ground and let Leena go; the fire surrounding him dissipated. Leena went forward to give him a passionate kiss, but to her surprise, he started walking away, letting Leena fall and eat dirt. She stood there for a few seconds, trying to figure out what just happened.

"Who was that?" Leena looked over and saw Agamemnon.

"My boyfriend…" she replied.

"Wow. If I had a boy friend like that… I mean… he's so cool. But why is he walking away?"

"I dunno"

"Hey, you forgot your girl!" Agamemnon yelled to him. He stopped for a second, but started walking again; smoke was trailing him for a few seconds. "Well… what are you sitting there for? Go after him!" he said.

"Right" she said, and gave him one more hug; then she bolted after him.

***

"Hey, you forgot your girl!" the guy yelled to me. _My girlfriend? Sure. What girlfriend frolics with other guys while you search for her? _flashback I had spent all my time searching for her, and was led to this town when word of a crazy girl got out; that's my Leena. I finally reached the town, and combed through every place she could have possibly been. When I finally found the house she had been in the whole time, she wasn't there, but I was told where she was headed, so I headed there. But when I finally found her, I saw her jump onto some guy, and kiss him on the lips. They talked shortly, but she was ON TOP OF HIM! I had seen enough, and I left. /flashback I continued walking on, and was ready to fly after the Whale King, when she ran up to me.

"Bit, what's up with you?" she said. _What's up with me?!_

"Nothing, I was just leaving you and your new boyfriend alone"

"What? Oh, you mean Agamemnon? He's not my boyfriend silly! He just saved me from the base when it blew up, and kept me her while I was looking for everyone"

"Sure… and what about that kiss you gave him?"

"What kiss?"

"The one where you fell on top of him?!" I said, raising my voice.

"…Oh, that. I was just really happy when I found out that our team found me, and I was just thanking him."

"THANKING HIM?" I yelled at her. I was ready to slap her, but realized she wasn't worth it. It was then that I decided that she was wasting my time. I had more important things to do; that Black Draft rat was influencing my only true friend, and he was getting away too fast for me. She was about to say something, but I didn't pay attention, and went to maximum burn, the flames making a ditch under me, and burning her a bit.

"Bit…" Leena's plea slipped through the wind.

***

It had been ten days since Leena had seen Bit, and most of our team was gone. Haru had slipped away after we got out of the base, and Brad and Naomi decided to join Leon's newly formed team (he talked Bit's sister into fighting). We never saw Bit, but the ZBC had reported to us that he had officially left our group and made his own team, but never listed its name. Pierce, Leena, and me are the only pilots in our team, but Leena just stays in her room and cries the whole time; she still hasn't gotten over Bit. Since Bit is on an official team, she can still send mail to him, but he has never sent them back. I once had to fix her computer, and I saw that she had sent over a hundred mails to him, each being at least 3 pages long (I could tell because of their sizes). That's all she really does, and she won't talk to anyone, not even Pierce. It's gone on so long that the Doc doesn't even play with his models anymore…

Times are rough, but Pierce and I have still been scoring victories; but we've heard the rumors, and they aren't pretty. We don't even get worthy challenges anymore, we get challenges from teams that are just desperate to increase their rank, and they aren't anywhere close to how good we are. Well, Pierce and I are also getting tired of it, and Pierce is talking about leaving; I'm thinking about sending the paperwork to the ZBC soon. But we are still part of this team, and we will still do our best on our battle tomorrow, against the Shadow team, a fairly new team with only one man.

***

Out in the desert night, a lone shiny point could be seen through the swirling gusts of sand saturated wind. From a distance, the colloidal sand filter seemed to make the light glimmer, as if it was the reflection of the moon on a quasi-turbulent body of water. As we get closer, we can see two people conversing. One is a woman with a black jumpsuit with a strange symbol on her breast. The other is a person in a desert colored/camouflaged robe.

"So, are you going to do it?" said the woman in the skin tight overall.

"Yes" replied the robed man coldly.

"It will put them all in danger"

"And what is your point? He was going to attack them tomorrow anyway."

"It just strikes me how much you have changed in the last few days"

"Well, I have become enlightened…" he said, holding up a golden necklace hanging a thin strip of silver with and engraved crest. He held up the crest in front of him, and let it dangle in the air, taking in the brilliant colors that reflected off of the campfire.

***

"Come on Leena, if you don't go out, you'll die in there." I heard Pierce say through Lena's door.

"I want to die…" she said in a depressed voice. She had been like that for some time, and Pierce just didn't like seeing this happen to her.

"Dammit Leena!" she said in frustration. I could hear a body dropping, then it being dragged on the floor, and all of a sudden the door opened, and my head fell on Pierce's chest.

"Not now Jamie! I need help with her" I looked down, and saw her dragging Leena across the floor.

"Sorry" I said, flushing.

"Woe is me!" Leena moaned. We forced he into her newly bought, but dusty Gun Sniper and forced her out. Then we boarded our Zoids, which we had also replaced and headed out. The battle was set up near our base, so it was easy for us to get to the site.

"Where is this guy?" Pierce said impatiently. As if on cue, the Judge capsule landed, and started the event, even though we couldn't see anyone. But when he said go, something uncloaked in front of us; it was a black Liger with red armor. I didn't have time to react, since it fired a charged shot at me, and I went down.

"Woo hoo! We haven't had a fight like this for ages!" I said. At the last second, I pulled up, and headed towards the Liger. Pierce was swooping down at it, and trying to shoot it, but it dodged too quickly for her, while Leena just stood there, as if she was somewhere else.

I approached it, and when I was sure I was heading directly at it, I accelerated to my maximum, and left an air current sweep it off its feet. Unfortunately for me, when I passed over him, he shot my back and there was no way for me to get out of it so I had to eject.

Pierce had also decided to do the same thing and was also shot down, and ejected near me. Then the Liger went after Leena, at full speed, but Leena didn't even move. When it looked like they were about to collide, the Liger's tail suddenly shot back and served as an anchor, stopping it just inches from the Gun Sniper; still Leena didn't move. The Liger was set up to slice the Gun Sniper in two, but became hesitant just as it was about to destroy Leena. Then it just stopped in front of Leena. It stood there, hugging the ground, looking at Leena's Gun Sniper as if it were about to aim for its neck (like when Bit get the Berserk Fury). They just stood there for some time, and then the Liger's cockpit opened, and a fireball came out that was heading towards Leena's. To my surprise, she opened her cockpit and let it in.

***

"So do you understand?"

"… ya, just like that time when you thought I was cheating on you…"

"All I care is that you still love me, because I know I still do" I said, and started crying.

"Open your cockpit, we have some catching up to do"

"Okay" in a few seconds he landed on my lap facing me, and gave me a long, long awaited kiss. I had been waiting for this moment for so long, and we were getting so into it, clothes started falling off… He started kissing me on my neck, and my tears were replaced by laughter; laughter or relief, laughter of love, laughter of satisfaction. I then felt him wrapping something around my neck, and thought he was about to murder me, but he got up and showed it to me; it was another necklace, or seemed to be. Somehow, the necklace started synthesizing with my older one, and where the two hearts were, a beautiful crest covered it, making a sort of locket. Words couldn't express my joy, so I just physically expressed it to him. Then we felt something shake. At first I thought I was just me (or us), but when he noticed, we looked outside and saw a black Whale King approach.

"Dammit… why him again" I said; Bit turned to leave.

"No, don't leave me again." I said alarmed.

"I'll be back, baby" he said, and gave me a short, but equally passionate kiss goodbye, and flew into the Liger's cockpit. At that moment, the blue Liger dropped from the Whale King, and the Whale King flew far away.

"So we finally meet again Bit Cloud" said the pilot of the black and blue Liger.

"So it seems Ryker" Bit said from his black and red Liger.

"Bit, where _did_ you get that Zoid?" asked Leena.

"Its not a Zoid, its Haru"

"What? That makes no sense…"

"I'll explain later"

While still pointing at Bit, Ryker's Liger headed off to the west, and Bit followed, side stepping as he did. As they gained speed, they straightened out, and looked at the direction they were going. As they increased their speeds further yet, they started bashing into one another, in the hopes that they might knock the other out; Leena scrambled to keep up, but was loosing fast.

"I'm gonna make you pay for what you did to my base" said Ryker.

"And I'm gonna make you pay for what you did to my friend!" said Bit, and crashed into him. That time, Bit Held onto Ryker's Liger so that they became enmeshed with each other and rolled in a ball of Zoids until their momentum was gone. Then Ryker shot his short-range weapon and the blasted off of each other. Bit slowly got back up, but found Ryker about to jump on him. Luckily, he had the power of fire, and blasted a jet of heat at him, obstructing his path.

"Ahh!!! Hot! Hot! Hot!"

"If you can't take the heat…"

"Cool down" he finished for him.

"That's not how it goes" whined Bit

"I know" he said coldly, and frosted himself to normal temperature. "You may have the power of fire, but I have the power of ice" said Ryker. He shot at Bit with his ice ray thingy, and froze him to the ground.

_Uh oh_… Bit let fire course throughout his Liger's body, melting the ice that held him down.

"Too late!" said Ryker, hurled into him, causing Bit to hurl far away. 

_Damn it!_ he said, and got up before any other surprises approached him. When he found him, Ryker was just standing in front of him, daring him to attack.

"You're so pathetic. I _dare_ you to attack me. I wont even move this time" he said in a cocky fashion.

_We'll see about that_. Bit thought to himself. He started charging him, setting up to do a strike laser claw. He increased his speed, and was going so fast, it seemed as if he was in his Jager mode. When he was two seconds away, it seemed liked the Liger exploded, but what really happened was Bit was doing his real attack. "Brimstone Fireball!" he said. The Liger went faster yet, and looked like a shooting comet going at an impossible speed.

"What is…" Ryker started, but never finished. A moment later his Zoid fell to its side; it was missing its entire left side.

"Who said old dogs can't learn new tricks?" Bit started walking away from him, ready to finish what he had started with Leena.

"Bit, we're not finished yet" said Haru.

"What do you mean?" 

"I wasn't sure at first, but now I know for certain. That Zoid you saw there was not a Zoid, it was Hiro.

"What?!" Bit said, and turned to look back. What he saw made his bones chill; the left side of the Liger was growing back.

"You thought you were done with me, didn't you?" said Ryker. By now, the Liger was fully… full again, and was ready for more. But Ryker didn't wait, he did the same thing Bit did.

"What the hell?! How did you do that?"

"It was simple, I copied everything you did, but used my ice power instead of your fire power" he replied. Bit looked over his damaged Zoid, and saw that he wasn't lying. Whatever was near the damaged areas were frozen solid.

"Haru, how long until you can fix that?" said Bit privately.

"Normally I could have had it done by now, but since all of my bots are frozen, it'll take time for them to turn on again."

"I don't understand any of those big words, but how long will it take?"

"… (-_-') Two minutes at most"

"We don't have two minutes!"

"I'm sorry, but heating it with the Liger's fire wont help because the bots still take time to reactivate."

"Damn it!"

"Damn straight!" interrupted Ryker. He was some distance away, and he had his Liger's mouth open, with a large blue-green ball of energy charging in it. "NOW YOU DIE!" he said, and fired the energy ball. For some reason, the energy ball didn't move very fast, but that didn't matter, its target was immobile.

_Shit_ Bit stood there, unable to move, not even able to escape. Haru told him to leave and save his own life, but he didn't hear it. He was staring death in the eye. And then a black angel stood in its way. Out of his trance, Bit realized what it was. Even though he couldn't directly see it, due to the enormous amount of light being emitted by the energy ball, he could see its silhouette; it was Leena's Gun Sniper.

"Leena, what the hell are you doing!"

"What you would have done for me"

"Damn it Leena, get out of the way!"

"No Bit. I love you too much to let you die in vain. At least I will buy you the time you will need"

"…Leena" Bit finally said when he realized she was too stubborn to change.

"I'll see you later" she said. Then the shockwave flipped the Liger over a few times, ironically landing it on its newly formed feet. "… Ryker…" Bit said.

"What was that?"

"RYKER!!!" Bit said in blind rage. He charged at him, setting his Liger on fire and moving like a comet; everything surrounding him melted.

"I won't fall for that again" said Ryker, and did something similar, freezing everything that he touched. They charged at each other, colliding in a dazzling display of ice, flame light and energy. Both Ligers landed, and both fell; they had run out of energy. Bit opened his cockpit and staggered to Ryker's; he would finally get his revenge. He tore open his cockpit, only to by met by a jet of freezing air.

"You're not the only one who discovered the secrets of these 'colonies'. I, too, have my own powers."

"It's the last time you'll get to use them though" Bit said, them gave him a flaming punch.

***

Haru slowly collected herself. When she had enough focus, she morphed into her normal form, the Haru that the Blitz team had grown to know. She slowly approached Hiro, and tried to communicate.

"Hiro…" when he didn't respond, she assumed that he was temporarily shutdown, and it would be much easier to communicate by merging with him. She stepped into him, and let her bots dissipate in his sea of bots. Her core carrying bots interfaced with his core carrying bots, and she searched for the Hiro that she had known and loved.

"Hiro, where are you!" yelled Haru in the virtual world of vast space.

"Help!" she heard a voice from far away. She went to it, and saw Hiro locked in some kind of prison.

"Haru, I thought I'd never see you again!" said Hiro

"How do I open this thing?" she asked him.

"It's impervious from in here, but this program was made so that if it was fired at from the outside, it would break down"

"Okay" she said and backed off. Then she fired a volley of virtual weapons fire, and the cell slowly deteriorated. She joyously went up to him and gave him a big hug.

"It feels so good to be with you again, just like that time in the hot springs"

"Yes it does" he replied. "You know, the guy is supposed to save the girl…"

"Very funny" she replied. Then she had an odd feeling. _Something's not right_ Haru thought. She released him and almost crashed from seeing what she saw. She wasn't hugging Hiro; it was Ryker! "Where's Hiro?!" she demanded.

"Did you think I would really keep him somewhere as easy to access as this?" he said. Before she knew what hit her, she was in a prison exactly like what she had released him from. She realized that he had moved her, and was now where the real Hiro was, accompanied by a black haired boy.

"Haru!" Hiro said in utter disbelief. "I thought I'd never see you again!"

"Hiro! You're still somewhere in here at least. Who's the boy?"

"My name is Raven"

"Well Raven… I think we're gonna know each other for awhile."

"You two may, but I will be gone soon"

***

"It will all end now, Ryker" I said. I started unleashing all the energy that I had stored up (like a power up in DBZ); Ryker did the same. Unknowns to us, we emitted sub-space energy that was completely inverse of the other, and when they made contact, they annihilated each other and released a vast amount of energy. In the real plane, it seemed that there was some kind of invisible wall between us.

I didn't charge up as fast as Ryker, so Ryker made the first move. He quickly went behind me and started strangling me. I finished powering up, and sucker punched Ryker in the nose. He let go momentarily, trying to stop the bleeding, but that left an opening that I took advantage of. I made some good distance between us, and rammed into him, micro explosions from our subspace energy neutralizing each other rocking the air. Ryker wasn't as badly shaken as me, and started punching me. I blocked all his punches, and started kicking him. We both switched from punching, kicking and blocking, and did it so fast, it seemed that we had lost our limbs. Not too far away, the clouds made a hole above us, the energy being generated from both of us making wind speeds similar to a twister's. We kept on fighting, and it got so intense, our punches and kicks broke the sound barrier and made sonic booms (like in DBZ when you see those circles when they hit).

"Dammit!" I screamed in frustration.

"Getting tired?" asked Ryker. In truth, I was. My emotions were not as effective at this state, and I had used a lot of energy.

"That's it, no more playing around!" I yelled, and flew half a mile away in an instant. Then I started concentrating what little energy I had left into a packet of burning red energy. From where he was, Ryker could tell what I was doing, and did the same. Unfortunately for him, he had just about the same amount of energy I had, and concentrated all his energy too quickly, making him revert to his normal mode. I was also done at that point, and just as quickly went back to where he was.

"This ends NOW!" I said, and shot my energy ball at him, moving me at least 50 feet backwards.

"Only one of us is coming out alive!" replied Ryker, and fired his own. The two balls collided, and the complementary energy types completely neutralized each other in sub-space, releasing a massive surge of energy in the real plain. So much energy was released at that point that a sub-space tear was formed, and all matter within reach was being sucked into the newly formed white hole; Zi was dying.

"Oh no… what did we do" I thought, but was interrupted by a momentous punch in the face. I quickly regained my composure, and preemptively attacked Ryker before he assaulted me again. Running low on energy, we could only grapple hands, energy burning and freezing off of us, and neutralizing the other's. We stood there, with the white hole looming behind steadily, steadily growing and consuming everything it came in contact with. The white hole finally reached us, but we didn't stop. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something coming out. It was a cute little white cottontail coming out of its white hole… 

Find out the dramatic conclusion in chapter 15: "Final Farewell"

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com or at: **Fanwork Feedback**


	16. Final Farewell

** Legacy of the Ancients**

**Chapter Fifteen: Final Farewell**

By: Sci-Fi-Raptor

Disclaimer: I own Zoids and everything related to it. Actually I own the world! Not really… sob

+++

The next day, the Blitz team bitterly went back to the hover cargo, thusly ending their vacation. Doc called everyone to the Command Center to introduce the newest member, and to go over future plans…

"Well team, its been a nice stay, but all good things end, don't they?" said the Doc, in a cheerful voice. He had actually been lamenting the vacation, since they didn't get any income, and he couldn't blow their money on models or accessories. But it was over, so they could start battling once again.

"Well, you don't have to sound so happy about it" said Brad.

"Ya… Ok, you all know Naomi, so we don't really need an introduction, but Raven here and for the most part an unknown person"

"I never really fought within the ZBC till now"

"Oh…" said the Doc. "Well, anyway, we are scheduled to fight the Raider's team tomorrow at 3:00 PM local. That means we fight about 12 hours from now. Its battle mode 0982, and we have agreed to a limit of only 2 Zoids."

"These are the possible Zoids that they may use" continued Jamie, showing four Zoids. One was a green Rev Raptor (which was rumored to have a stealth generator that also acted as a shield), one was a pink Kit Fox (a Zoid that was made from scratch by its pilot, the only data available on it was that it had similar properties to a Command Wolf, but they were radically stronger), one was a white Gun Sniper (with a huge radar thing on its back, like the ones on spyplanes), and the last was a sand colored Gogulas (it had four CPC's, and an assortment of missile pods and assault weaponry. "I'm pretty sure that they'll use the Gogulas, but I'm not sure about the rest"

"What makes you say that?" asked Brad.

"Well, in all of the 0982 battle modes that they've been in, in the last month, they always use the Gogulas as support fire, and they rotate the rest. So far, the pattern they used was Raptor, Fox, and Sniper. But they broke the pattern last time by starting with the Sniper" said Jamie

"So, who wants to go?" asked Doc

"I nominate Bit and Raven" said Naomi

"Why them?" asked Jamie

"Bit is probably the most experienced at fighting something like a Gogulas, and we've never seen Raven fight, so I guess we might as well start here" she explained.

"Yes, that makes sense, do you two agree?" said Doc

"Yes" they said in turn.

"Ok, so you two prep for battle while we…do other stuff" said Doc.

"In other words, they work and we do nothing" said Brad

"Or that…" said the Doc 

+++

Exactly 72 hours ago…

We stood there, with the white hole looming behind steadily, steadily growing and consuming everything it came in contact with. The white hole finally reached us, but we didn't stop. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something coming out. It was a cute little white cottontail coming out of its white hole. Then I felt all my energy run out and waited for Ryker to overcome me. But nothing happened. As I fell limp to the ground, I saw Ryker fall with me. Then that S.O.B. rabbit bit me! As I regained my strength, I saw it bite Ryker. Then the most bizarre thing happened; it changed into the form of a human!

"Wh-wh-what are you?!" I said in hysteria, surprised at my surprise.

"You don't remember me?"

"Should I?"

"Remember when you were in that collapsed store out in the desert?"

"What store?"

"You know, the one where you got your first Glooper-BlogDinger?"

"Oh yeah. What was the ten minutes business about?"

"Damn, you still remember. Well, I guess I'll start the countdown now." Suddenly, a hologram of an enlarged stopwatch popped up next to them and started. The human started talking rapidly. "Now, it seems to us that two of our operatives were left behind on this planet and because of our carelessness, they have caused much trouble. It seems that they have intervened with your evolutionary process in a degree that is too high for your species to undergo in such a short time. There fore, we will now rectify all problems caused by us and our associates."

"Huh?"

"What I basically mean is that we will put back everything back to normal."

"Oh. So that means I won't have that thing where I turn into fire anymore?" Bit said disappointedly.

"Yes"

"What will happen to Hiro and Haru?"

"They will have the choice of coming with us, but if they choose not to, well, they will choose to come with us."

"Is that a threat? Cause if you mess with Hiro, you mess with me!"

"No it's not a threat"

"Hey, how can Hiro even make a choice when he's still under Ryker's control?"

"Ryker? Who is this Ryker?"

"That guy" said Bit, pointing at Ryker.

"Oh, that's not good"

"I know, it would suck to be under someone's control"

"True, but that's not why. Something like this means that I have to call in my bosses"

"Your bosses?"

"Yes. I think the people of this planet call them the Ancients"

"The what! I thought they all left"

"Yes they did, but they have become more advanced since then, and have developed instant transport techniques."

"You mean like that white hole thingy you came out of?"

"Sort of. Normally we send a subspace energy burst to our target destination to make a fissure in real-space, and make a wormhole for transport, but you did it for us. What you did today will actually increase the efficiency of our system, since you two have found a means of creating a white hole with less energy then we normally do."

"Wha…"

"…you done a good thing"

"Oh" the two stood there for an awkward silence, trying to delay the inevitable. Out of the corner of his eye, Bit could see some one coming out of the white hole. That person was followed by a group of others.

"Are those people your bosses?" asked Bit nervously.

"Yes" the two watched silently as the Ancients did their work. There were nine of them, and they slowly walked up to the mass that was Hiro. They all stood next to it, seeming to pay their respects to him, and they made a circle around one of themselves. The eight that were part of the circle looked up, and turned into flashes of light that streaked into the sky and went in opposite directions. The remaining being went up to Hiro and put both hands on him and started some sort of chant. In a few minutes, the mass that was Hiro broke into four different things. Three were humanoid while one was spherical. The humanoid that looked like Hiro went up to the sphere and destroyed it. Then he went up to the one that looked like Haru and embraced her. The third humanoid just stood there with a big smile on his face, as if he finally finished his journey.

Bit felt good for Hiro that he had his love once again, but that reminded him of Leena.

"You know how you said you would return everything back to normal?"

"I won't, but they will"

"Well, does that mean that you will return people back to life?"

"Yes"

"So, when will Leena be back?"

"Remember those guys you just saw turn to light a little while ago? Everything that they fly over is returning to normal. So if she was under there are of flight, she should be back."

"But she was right here when she died…" said Bit in dismay.

"I didn't die you nut!" Leena said from the sky

"I miss her so much, I can hear her voice" said Bit, and started crying on the rabbit guy's shoulder.

"You retard, I'm up here!"

"Woe is me!" said Bit, and cried some more. In a few seconds, Leena landed and took off her parachute and forced Bit to look at her.

"I miss her so much, I can even see her standing in front of me!" he complained, and started crying on the rabbit guy's shoulder again.

"Is he always like this?"

"Unfortunately" said Leena. She then turned him once again and planted a kiss on him. Then Bit broke the kiss.

"I miss her so much, I can still feel her" he was cut off by Leena slapping him in the face. "Oh, hi Leena" he said, and started crying on the rabbit guy's shoulder again. When Leena looked like she was going to maim him, he suddenly spun to her and cried: "Leena! You're alive!" then picked her up and started dancing.

_Jeez that took awhile._ She thought to herself.

The rabbit guy left the two alone and went to his master. He was debriefing the three humanoids of their situations.

+++

"So you two agree that it is best for you to leave?"

"Yes Chancellor Davion" Haru said.

"And besides, I was getting tired of having to hide all the time" added Hiro. "But what about Bit's organoid system? I took its place, so what will happen to his Zoid?"

"Well, we can just replace it with one of our own, and put in your personality so he won't notice a difference"

"That sounds perfect" said the rabbit guy.

"Hayato, is that you?"

"Its me Hiro"

"I knew I sensed your signature, I haven't seen you since the final battle"

"Same here brother, we got a lot of catching up to do. You are coming, aren't you?"

"Yeah, but I have to say farewell to my best friend" Hiro said, and walked toward Bit. Haru was about to follow, but Hayato stopped her.

"Raven, there is a matter I must speak to you about" said the Chancellor to Raven.

"I can finally pass on?"

"I'm sorry Raven, but the counsel has made the decision that we cannot judge you for who you are now, and since it is apparent that you are much different then who you were, we cannot judge you on your older self. So we have determined that we will let God judge you, and you will die like any other person on this planet, they way you should have"

"But… I have waited for so long" he said disappointedly. The counselor only smiled.

"Raven, my boy. You must understand that death is not something to rush. You have been given a chance only God can bestow, and you should live the rest of your life to the fullest"

"I see"

"And to help you out, and make things easier for us, we have made you part of the Blitz team now. You will be replacing Haru from now on."

"Well, from what those two tell me about the team, I think I will enjoy it"

"That's good, and I can only wish you the best of luck." He said to the boy tenderly. Then the sound of eight sonic booms could be heard heading in their direction. "It seems that me associates have done their work. Now all that will be left is to let time reset itself, and put everything back to before any of this happened" The eight beings landed and went through the white hole. Hayato and Haru joined them, followed by the Chancellor.

+++

"Well Bit, Leena, I have to say I've had a lot of fun while I was with you guys."

"I've had a lot of fun too, Hiro" said Bit, crying.

"Me too" said Leena, holding onto Bit's hand.

"Hiro, the wormhole is closing, you have to come in now" said Haru, coming back to get Hiro

"Just give me a second" he said to her. Then he looked at the young couple in front of him. "Well Bit, I guess this is goodbye" Hiro said. Bit offered his hand right hand for Hiro to shake. He held the hand with both of his, and they ended up hugging.

"I'm gonna miss you man, you've been like a brother to me." Said Bit, still crying.

"Hiro, you have to go now" said Haru a sensitively as she could.

"Farewell, Bit" said Hiro.

"Farewell, old friend" said Bit. Leena hugged him to try and comfort him. He could see Haru doing the same as they walked through the hole. Hiro turned to wave his last goodbye and stepped through the portal, which collapsed after him.

+++

"Bit, are you all right?" Leena said in a worried tone.

"Huh? Oh, I'm okay" he said. He found himself staring at the TV, with the news still playing. He noticed his surroundings and realized he was still in the hotel of the Hot Springs Resort. Nothing unusual.

"Then why are you crying?" she asked.

"I… I don't know. I feel like I lost someone I really loved for some reason"

"Well, you still have me" she said, and tried to comfort him.

"Yeah…" he said, and cuddled up to her on the couch. Eventually the two fell asleep in each other's arms. The rabbit tattoo on Bit's right hand seemed to smile. 

Wow. This story has lasted almost a year! Isn't that crazy? I guess one reason why it took so long to finish was because I didn't really want to. But I guess we all have to move on, don't we? I must say that its wasn't exactly the same person writing this fic every time. I know that I've changed a lot over the last year, and it probably affected how I wrote, but I guess I'm always gonna be a sucker for happy endings. Don't worry though, I still have a few undisclosed fics up my sleeve, so keep reading, and good hunting. (and just to deter any more confusion, which the start of this chapter probably caused, the tattoo I was referring to came from chapter 10)

And my final gloat for this story. 92 pages! That's how long this fic is. I bet people wrote way more, BUT IT'S THE MOST I'VE EVERY DONE SO SCREW YOU!

Thanks for reading.

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com or at: **Fanwork Feedback**


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